Paris in the midst of a Post-it war

By Ansgar Haase Sep 22, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Paris - Workers across Paris are involved in a creative art battle with the help of Post-it notes stuck on their office windows.

The trend probably began as a result of boredom, but mushroomed in popularity over the summer. At times it has taken the form of enormous figures, like Super Mario or Pac-Man, created by workers sticking thousands of multi-coloured notes on windows to mimic pixelated images.

Other creations include representations of Asterix and Obelix, as well as a Marilyn Monroe portrait in the style of Pop Art artist Andy Warhol.

The competition has been intense as workers from different companies spent the summer attempting to create the largest and most impressive Post-it artwork on the facades of their gleaming office buildings.

La guerre des Post-it (the Post-it wars) began in June in the Montreuil office park in an eastern suburb of Paris, when employees of gaming giant Ubisoft began creating small aliens from Post-it notes.

Workers from the neighbouring building, which houses the IT systems of the bank BNP Paribas, retaliated with a spaceship, using the iconic Space Invaders game, where aliens are shot down, as their inspiration.

The idea quickly spread across Paris, with similar battlegrounds springing up throughout the city, including the business district of La Defense and Issy-les-Moulineaux, home to many of France's telecommunications and media companies.

Participants believe that the artistic activity has a social purpose, arguing that, previously, there had been no contact between workers in different buildings. But, since the outbreak of the Post-it wars, the situation has completely changed.

So far, there have been no complaints from any employers about their employees taking time off work to stick thousands of Post-it notes on workplace windows.

'People are working hard enough as it is. In fact, I think it is beneficial that they occasionally get the chance to be away from their computer monitors in order to let their creativity run free,' a French office manager told the TF1 television station.

Some company CEOs have actually decided to preserve the art works created by their employees, transferring them onto giant paper sheets before the office windows are cleaned.

The multi-coloured Post-it notes have often been used for artistic purposes since they were introduced to the market by US company 3M in 1980.

Artist Melynda Schwier-Gierard used intricately folded Post-it notes to create wall-sized works of art, while Ulf Nawrot has produced his diary on the 76x76 millimetre pieces of paper every day since 1989 and now posts his work on the internet.