The young French street artist Combo, known for his topical graffiti around Paris, has revealed that he was beaten up in Paris while putting up his latest work: a picture of himself standing next to the word “coexist”, written with religious symbols, reports The Guardian.
He wrote on his Facebook page that he was knocked to the ground and repeatedly beaten by a group of men as he was pasting up some art on a Paris street late at night. He tried to defend himself from the beating.
“Tired that I wasn’t giving up, they left me bleeding and ran off. They promised me the same treatment if I started again and advised me to shave off my beard.” He said that despite threats he would continue to post his work around Paris streets.
Combo, born in the northern town of Amiens, to a Lebanese Christian father and a Moroccan Muslim mother, is seen as a symbol of the diversity of French society – he was present at the vast Paris street demonstration of solidarity after January’s terrorist attacks and since then has been trying to use street art to blast cultural stereotypes.