During my first sojourn in Paris in the spring of 1960 I went to Montmartre, the site where the Paris Commune started in 1871.
A few days later, I went to the Pere Lachaise cemetery where some of the heroic Communards were buried.
Those two visits moved me deeply.
I made a painting in honour of the Communards.

I learned that the day when the Paris Commune was founded, the First of May, is commonly called the Day of the Cherries.

In 2010 to celebrate the Paris Commune
I took two fresh cherries and I went inside the Louvre.
Held up by two young men, I placed the cherries with white dry glue paste on the nipples of the Venus de Milo.

A few years later, when Adam Nankervis and I were in Montmartre, we created an impromptu performance using masks with cherries in Homage to the Paris Commune.

I dream some day people wearing masks
will go from Montmartre to the Louvre
and cover the Venus de Milo with cherries.

 – David Medalla