Underground Paris is an organisation dedicated to documenting and telling the story of street art and graffiti culture. Through this work, it seeks to preserve under-recognised histories, promote inclusion in the arts, and share knowledge widely through digital access—making this culture accessible to audiences beyond traditional art spaces.

At its core, the project creates a bridge between two traditionally separate artistic worlds: the street art and graffiti community, and artists operating within the formal art world.

Underground Paris invites artists from outside street and graffiti culture to engage directly with its methods—working in public space, responding to the environment, and understanding the philosophies that underpin these practices. Street art and graffiti have historically functioned as relatively closed networks, often shaped by socio-economic barriers and informal systems of knowledge transmission. This model opens that network while maintaining its integrity.

This exchange is deliberately two-directional.

Artists rooted in graffiti and street culture gain access to forms of social and cultural capital often reserved for those with formal training—curators, residencies, institutional funding, and exhibition opportunities in well-resourced spaces such as galleries and museums.

Conversely, artists from the formal art world are introduced to alternative ways of thinking and making. They encounter not only new techniques and materials, but also different frameworks around authorship, site, architecture, and the function of art in public space.

A key aspect of the Underground Paris model is documentation. We document artworks that emerge organically in public spaces, while also supporting the production of new work. This takes place across a spectrum—sometimes with permission from property owners or local authorities, and sometimes without authorisation, in line with traditional graffiti practices.

We do not treat authorisation as a defining boundary. Instead, we reflect the reality of street art culture, which has always existed both within and outside formal permission structures.

Participation does not require artists to put themselves at legal risk. Rather, we introduce the philosophical foundations of unauthorised practice—why, in certain contexts, working without permission may be understood not as harm, but as a contribution.

This raises broader questions around public space and ownership. Street art culture often challenges conventional ideas of private property, particularly in spaces that are neglected, abandoned, or devoid of social value. In such environments, artistic intervention can act as a form of reclamation—activating underused areas, contributing to visual culture, and enhancing community experience.

At the same time, artists from graffiti and street traditions bring critical knowledge into dialogue with the formal art world—technical skill, spatial awareness, stylistic innovation, and a deeply embedded understanding of public space as a primary site of practice.

Ultimately, Underground Paris operates as a system of cross-pollination: a continuous exchange of knowledge, access, and perspective between different artistic communities. It is both a platform for documentation and a framework for collaboration, working to expand who participates in culture, how it is produced, and where it is experienced.