Chuuuttt !!!, mural in Paris 4e Arrondissement, France

Chuuuttt !!! is a large black-and-white stencil mural on the wall of a building facing Place Stravinsky in Paris. It shows a giant face with wide eyes and an index finger pressed to the lips, rendered with spray paint and cut stencils that let the original wall show through.

The mural was made in 2011 by Jef Aérosol, at the invitation of the mayor of the 4th arrondissement, and was inaugurated on 18 June that year. In 2018 the artist repainted the work himself after years of weathering, and the façade was later restored with care by the building owner.

For people passing by, the raised finger on the lips is often read as a request for silence, but the artist meant it as an invitation to notice the many sounds of the neighborhood. Around the mural, you can hear children playing, musicians performing near the Centre Pompidou, and the water moving in the nearby fountain, all sounds the image suggests you stop and notice.

You can see the mural from the open pedestrian area of Place Stravinsky, which is free of cars and easy to reach on foot. Standing back near the fountain gives you a clear view of the whole face without needing to enter any building.

To paint the face, the artist used two stencils made of about 300 square meters of material, making this one of the largest hand-cut stencil works in the world. The mural was first intended to be temporary, planned to stay only until 2014, but it was kept and later restored instead of being removed.