Saype reveals his art work at the pyramids of Giza

“Beyond Walls Step 20 Cairo” by Swiss-French artist Saype (Guillaume Legros) at the Great Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, Egypt, 2024 . PHOTO/Courtesy photo from Saype

The French-Swiss land artist Guillaume Legros aka Saype (contraction of Say Peace) has presented his latest giant eco-friendly land art work in front of the iconic Great Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, Egypt.

His giant brief land art painting titled “Beyond Walls Step 20: Cairo,” depicts two gigantic interlaced hands in the desert sands of Egypt.

 Guillaume Legros released the painting on June 2, at the Great Pyramids of Giza. With an overall area of 900 square metres, this artwork was created using biodegradable pigments made out of charcoal and chalk of the largest human chain in the world linking Egypt.

 For this 20th stage of Beyond Walls, a world-artwork started in 2019 in Paris, France, Saype finally realises the bold project of painting infront of the Pyramids of Giza.

This iconic location was chosen not only for its beauty but also because it embodies eternity.

 “The encounter between this ephemeral artwork and these millennia-old constructions will be an opportunity to renew the dialogue between the past we inherit and the present we create. The gigantic hands of Beyond Walls, made with eco-friendly paint, aim to connect ancient and current civilisations to symbolise the continuity and interconnection of humanity through time,” Saype says.

 In an increasingly polarised world, the artist chooses to paint symbolically the largest human chain in the world, inviting us to embrace kindness and togetherness. This is the Beyond Walls project. Pairs of hands, which intertwine and travel from town to town, and form a giant chain painted on the ground symbolising union, mutual aid, and common effort beyond walls.

“Since the beginning of this adventure, my goal has been to create works of art that transcend borders and unite people around common values such as solidarity, hope and humanity. Each mural created is a symbol of our ability to overcome divisions and build a more inclusive and peaceful world,” Saype says.

 “The Giza fresco is particularly significant. Located at the foot of the thousand-year-old pyramids, a place steeped in history and mystery, the work represents a link between past and present, uniting civilizations across time and space. It is a tribute to the heritage of humanity and a reminder of our shared responsibility for the future,” he adds.

 “Beyond Walls” project shows interlaced hands, reaching out, shaking and united in a common effort beyond all walls separating humans and enclosing them in mental or geographical spaces.

Thus, the walls erected in mentalities become fictive partitions, wiped out by artistic imagination.

 It merely opens a breach in the real walls, the ones built by humanity within and against itself, Saype says.

 In this specific artwork, the symbolic wall crossing does not eliminate the singularity of each of the hands: they all tell a life story and are subtly marked with multiple backgrounds (social, geographical, ethnical, among others, he adds. “Beyond Walls and with this universal farandole, every human individuality is granted rights of way and civil ones. The universality conveyed in this project is one of plural humanity,” Saype says.

 He adds that Beyond Walls will cross borders in order to carry out this universal message and make it travel from city to city, all along this immense human chain.

 In each of his works, Saype captures the fragility of our societies and the challenges we are all called upon to overcome, through the monumental frescoes, he creates on grass, earth, sand, and snow around the world: New York, Paris, Venice, Geneva, Cape Town, Turin, Dubai, Nairobi, Istanbul, Ouagadougou, Miami, and more.

The fading nature of his frescoes aims to impact mentalities while respecting nature. They are created with an eco-responsible paint composed mainly of chalk and charcoal.

Among his most notable works is the Beyond Walls series. This monumental project started with a premise: the world is polarizing, and some people are choosing to withdraw. Nevertheless, Saype emphasizes, “I am deeply convinced that it is together that humanity will be able to overcome the various challenges it faces.”

This conviction gave birth to the desire to share a positive message of mutual aid and common effort across the world, symbolically creating the largest human chain ever made in the world.

The project began in Paris at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in 2019 and travels from city to city with the ambition of crossing the five continents and connecting people from around the world.

Saype creates monumental frescoes on grass and earth to call for world lasting peace.

He invented an eco-responsible paint composed mainly of chalk and charcoal. He is seen as the pioneer of an artistic movement linking street art and land art. In 2019, his approach and innovative technique earned him the nomination by the famous magazine Forbes as one of the thirty most influential personalities under thirty years old, in the field of art and culture. His poetic and ephemeral works travel around the world to impact mentalities while respecting nature.

Saype was born on February 17, 1989 in Belfort, France, not far from the Swiss border. He created his first graffiti as a teenager under the pseudonym Saype – Say Peace. Ten years ago he came to Switzerland to work as a qualified nurse.

A passionate self-taught artist, he taught himself numerous painting techniques early on, and developed a biodegradable paint in 2013. Today he is an internationally renowned artist and cultural figure and a pioneer of grass painting. He still lives in Switzerland, in the Jura.

His works have been presented in France and Switzerland. In 2019, he presented a paint-splattered figure in a baseball cap kneeling down on a vast stretch of lawn beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Ambition

The project began in Paris at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in 2019 and travels from city to city with the ambition of crossing the five continents and connecting people from around the world.

 Saype creates monumental frescoes on grass and earth to call for world lasting peace.