Walking through the streets of Paris it is almost impossible not to come across a Space Invader: a tile made up of ceramic tiles that form the pixelated image of the popular 1978 videogame Space Invaders (hence the artist’s pseudonym). Have you ever seen one? Here is where Invader, a French artist whose identity is unknown, makes them. He started creating the first mosaics inspired by his favorite video game in the 1990s and has never stopped since, spreading his tiles in more than 65 cities and 33 different countries around the world. The appearance of the first tile in the city is the signal that “the invasion” has begun: bridges, tunnels, palaces, buildings, sidewalks, walls. Each place is carefully chosen for its visibility, interest or symbolic value. Aliens are everywhere and in the most unthinkable places. So far no continent has been spared.
Invader’s mission is to “hack” the public space by spreading its mosaics like a “virus“. The artist himself created maps of the cities in which he intervened to trace his creations, and recently released the “Flash Invaders” app which allows you to identify and photograph the mosaics found in the city, to collect them, earn points and challenge your friends. Among his most recent invasions we mention Rome (2010) Los Angeles (ninth invasion completed in 2018), Hong Kong (seventh invasion completed in 2017) and Ravenna (2017), a strategic place because it is a city known for its famous Byzantine mosaics.