The Pop Suréalist is a French street artist who chooses to remain anonymous. Born in 1979, he is one of the most intriguing collage and street artists working today on the European scene. A graduate of the École Supérieure d’Art Moderne in Paris with honors, he began experimenting with analog collage techniques as early as 2002. Over the years, he has developed a distinctive artistic language that connects surrealism, social criticism, and philosophical reflections on human nature.

His work revolves around one of the central forces of our world – the temptation and power of money. In his street pieces, The Pop Suréalist pastes images of people, politicians, or cultural icons – but instead of faces, he replaces them with real banknotes. The result creates both visual and conceptual tension: the viewer’s brain first identifies the figure, and only afterward realizes that its “face” is in fact a national currency or economic symbol. The effect is surreal, almost absurd, forcing the viewer to question values, identity, and control.

Money as a Religious Symbol
The Pop Suréalist views money as an almost religious object – a symbol of blind faith. “How can we explain our need to cling to a piece of paper and see it as the Holy Grail?” he asks through his works. According to his observations, around 30% of the pieces he pastes in public are torn down by passersby – with only the banknote taken. It’s a tangible expression of the global cult surrounding money: even when attached to a dirty wall, people still long to touch it.

By “disabling” real, numbered, legal tender, he plays with the boundaries of law and value, challenging the convention that economic worth exists only because people choose to believe in it. “The value of money isn’t real,” he explains. “It’s based on mutual trust – and once that trust disappears, money becomes just paper again.”

An Archaeologist of Economic Consciousness
The Pop Suréalist sees himself as an archivist of collective memory, especially in an era when money is becoming increasingly digital. In his work, he “preserves” old and disappearing currencies, transforming them from units of trade into artistic memory units. “Banks are erasing physical money,” he says, “but I’m documenting its final days.”

In 2018, he created the collage series “Make Art with Money,” combining banknotes from different countries with faces taken from books and magazines from the 1950s to the present day. Among the figures reborn on the walls of Paris: Queen Elizabeth, Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and Nelson Mandela. Each face is reincarnated within an ironic context – a fusion of power, ideology, and money.