Fake Signs
Panos 2013: “a collaborative project that takes the work of artists from around the world, in the form of fake road signs, and turns the streets of Lyon, France into an enormous gallery without walls.” Hmm. Sounds vaguely familiar. Maybe that’s because it seems to draw from the same way of thinking about cities as so many other arts interventions, which seek to disrupt the flow of daily life in order to draw attention to it.
In this case, the signs that work best are those that take their cues from their setting and those that critique the content of ordinary road signs. The English artist Tim Fishlock contributed an upside-down bus, which looks like a cute cartoon face but also suggests some kind of upheaval to the natural order of traffic. Naoshii, from Japan, took the classic “do not enter” sign and turned it into a window. Swiss-American Grotesk, with his sign reading “Sous les pavés, la plage,” manages to evoke the 1968 student riots in Paris as well as Paris Plage (or maybe just the state of riverside public space in general).
Photos courtesy Panos 2013
Tags: Signs, Street Art
