During a trip to the United States in 1971, he discovered the first graffiti in NYC which intrigued and impressed him deeply. But when he began to paint in the street in 1981 in Paris, he chose the stencil that had a more latin style which he felt was better suited to the architecture of Paris. His first stencils were small black rats that he made run along the walls of Paris. The rat, the anagram of the word ART.