French Activists Mean Business

Paysages de France is a national group of French activists that take to the streets monthly to protest illegal signage. It seems like a rowdy good time that I would love to see happen more often stateside. According to our friend in Montauban, they are approaching their 26th "cover up" day which will be filmed by a national public TV channel. Amazing!

Mr. Dimaggio Ad Takeover in Milan

VIA Streetsy

Our sources in Rome tell us they are pretty positive this piece by Mr. Dimaggio, was put up over a framed advertising location in Milan. The source tells us that normally similar locations to this are used for political campaign posters in Italy. If the spaces are anything like the Affichage Libre in France, they are often co-opted by mainstream commercial ads for private use. In France the Debunkers Collective battles this type of illegal commercial usage monthly.

Looks like OX got Up After All

Looks like OX got up after all.

OX-Central Park Arrest In January of 1985

Photo by Bill Cunningham

This is an image OX sent me from France. It's of him and friends being arrested for posting their artwork in Central Park in January of 1985. Who even wheat pasted in 1985? Awesome!

Photo by Masto

Before I had a chance to post on the arrest photo above, OX sent me this image of him and Closky from around the same time period. This gives you a better idea of what kind of wheat paste imagery they were putting up. Check the jackets, also by Closky.

Princess Hijab Hits Paris Again!

This newest piece from Princess Hijab was recently photographed by Christophe Meiries in Paris. The image shows a level of detail and sophistication I haven't seen in the Princess's work thus far. I like it a lot and I hope to see more soon.

As I have no contact with the artist, I may make assumptions here that aren't true. Please forgive me. As I understand it, this project isn't ultimately about the companies behind the advertisements, so much as it is about the proliferation of a cultural minority in media more generally. Despite this I still wish the logos were removed along with the "hijabizing," as the artist calls it. Without the company logo, the image refers only to the artist, whereas with the logo the image is somehow still a bastardized ad for Arena, but an ad nonetheless. I understand the artist might want the viewer to associate the new media content with the company, but that's just my thought on the matter.

French Artist OX Answers A Few Of PublicAdCampaign's Questions

Every once in a while we come across an artist whose work seems to be very in line with our own over here at PublicAdCampaign. We like to ask them a few questions about their intentions and motivations. French artist OX took the time to answer our request and the results are given below.


Why do you create work in the public?

I do not create my works in public, however I do install them in public places. First, I select locations by closely examining a specific area, then I do the painting in my studio, and only then is it installed outside in public view. I see my work as “installation” rather than “performance”. It is a very free way of envisaging artistic production.

Why do you create work over/using outdoor advertising?

I have always thought that billboards, because they are similar to huge paintings hung in the landscape, provide an extraordinary support on which to show my paintings. At the beginning, I used them only as a means for bringing my work to the public eye and to publicize it in a quick and effective way, but without giving the surrounding context any particular attention. Currently, my art is the same but I now take the site into account, up to the point even where it often dictates my graphic choices and I sometimes leave pieces of the advertising image visible.

Tell us something about where you live and your relationship to your city.

I live in Bagnolet, a suburb less than 1 km outside Paris, where I have pasted more than 130 posters on free-expression-panels (designed for non-commercial posters) over a period of 4 years. I imagine the town as a recreation ground, which I view as a three-dimensional composition in which I place disturbing visual elements, whose presence will become a sort of photographic still life.

How would you describe your relationship with advertising?

Advertising is omnipresent in our lives, it feeds our consumer addiction, it exploits and recycles artistic creation and it finances it. It forms a part of my imagination, I draw on its imagery to create and I use its means to communicate. Although I sometimes divert it’s meaning, I do not have the pretension of fighting it.

Having done both, is there a difference between working in France and New York?

Yes, there is a difference. I think it is less risky to practice this art in France. With the Ripoulins in New York in 1985, there were no billboards available for my work, so I pasted my paintings directly on worksite boardings or private walls and even on a roof at Central Park, which caused problems with the owners and the police, and we were even taken to court. I no longer work in this manner.

Tell us one of your favorite moments working on the street.

Without a doubt, the very first time I pasted my work on a billboard! More recently, a favorite moment was one very cold winter morning when I had to mix antifreeze with my paste and then climb onto my slippery car roof to carry out my art billposting, even though I was alone it was a moment of jubilation. And of course, there are many other memorable times.

If you could run a fantasy camp, what would it be?

At first, when I read this question, I imagined Fantasy Camp to mean a sort of combination between Spring Break and a Hippy group, where you do body painting in the setting sun . . . . then I thought of two projects I worked on, one in which I took part called “Holidays and Painting”, and another project which has never been carried out : “Festival of Color”.

My idea would be to propose a range of actions to enable people to celebrate their favorite colors.

French Activists In Montauban Fight The Encroachment Of Illegal Advertising

I was just emailed by an activist in France that was curious about the four states in our country that have banned outdoor advertising on their highways. His city of Montauban has been fighting, and winning, the battle against the encroachment of illegal advertising for some time now. Remember you are not alone in this battle and that the world as a whole is making this a contemporary social issue. Below is his email, as it contains some interesting information.



Hello Jordan, A question ..do the 4 states where publicity is not allowed in the US really apply the law? (Hawai, Alsaka, Oregon and Maine ) I am English and I live in Montauban in S W France.(for over 25 years now)..a town (like many other french towns) which has its entry roads ruined by excessive publicity hoardings...here are a few photos attached of our cover up campaign (started in 2005) which has seen us organize 25 cover up days .Around 25 people participate each time...we've had a few threats from some local billboard firms and a massive support from the general population + tens of articles in the press and 5 regional television reports....the town has now passed a local by-law which will remove all the billboards from roundabouts and junctions and halve the size of shop signs...all the best Tony Smith local correspondent for Paysages de France (French association that fights visual pollution) www.paysagesdefrance.org

PublicAdCampaign In PubliPhobe Newsletter

I was just made aware of a newsletter put out under the name publiphobe by a wonderful member of the debunkers collective in France. This man has been involved in 53 acts of civil disobedience associated with outdoor advertising in public space and has been arrested 38 times. That is insane. Glad to know him, and if I follow through with plans to go to Paris for my 30th birthday, I will meet them and tell you all how things go. Below is an excerpt from the newsletter and the translation below

The organization PublicAdCampaign - which apparently has existed for about five years - is led by Jordan Seiler, a New York artist. Its goal is to protest against the invasion of public space and mass transport by advertising and the influence of private interest on the mind. The methods used are similar to those in France: painting over, covering billboards with personal artwork, identifying illegal billboards… Like in France, Jordan and his friends come up against, at best, the inertia of public officials, or, at worst, repression (arrest, preventive detention, etc.). A french anti-advertising activist met Jordan during the summer 2009. The transatlantic connection is thus established.

New Work By Princess Hijab

VIA Vandalog

As per usual I'd prefer the advertisement gone but this takeover does have a wonderful quality to it. The lack of substantial text allows the simple image to stand on its own, and I like that.


Photos by Antoine Breant

The Most Exciting Thing I've Seen In A Long Time

The Association Le M.U.R. Modulable Urbain Reactif is a website showcasing artwork on a single street level billboard in Paris. It seems the advertising location was overtaken by graffiti scrawl to the point where the ad company simply gave up on the billboard in early 2007. Left abandoned, Le M.U.R. began to curate artworks at this location and has continued to do so ever since. The website showcases the long list of artist projects and is a fantastic example of what art can bring to even a single location if given the opportunity. It also is a compelling argument for an environment in which art is championed over advertising as it is clearly a better option than the typical ad posters which adorn these types of locations in Paris.

Photo of Association Le M.U.R.Modulable Urbain Reactif advertising location with work by SAN

French Artist OX - Another New Favorite

I was just introduced to an artist hailing from France by the name of OX. He often works over outdoor advertising in bright colorful patterns and images that somewhat remind me of MOMO's work in it's simplicity. The fact that he makes no commentary directly about the ad content, but instead is interested in the formal qualities of his city, couldn't make me more excited. The results are billboards which demand your attention not because of their content but because of their lack of it. That moment where you wonder what you are looking at, who put it there and why it asks nothing of you. In my own work I attempt to achieve a similar relationship with the viewer where noticing the work causes you to question our cities use as message boards as opposed to artistic canvases.

The below image is a fantastic image OX sent me from a trip of his to NYC in the 80's. Oh history!

L'Atlas - My Sincerest Apologies

When your main field of interest is as specific as mine is, there is no excuse for not knowing about someone working so prolifically in that same field. L'Atlas happens to be one such person, and I must admit I just found out about his work recently. A look at the website gives you a good idea of the scope of his work, and its placement over France's Affichage Libre.

The French have a fantastic history of civil disobedience directly related to outdoor advertising and its concentration on the state sponsored free billboards meant to be used for public communications and political messages. The Debunkers Collective is one of the more radical groups in France attempting to deal with this social problem.

Debunkers Collective Meeting

photo from Les Deboulonneurs photostream

Last night I sat down with the Debunkers Collective, or the déboulonneurs, which I was told roughly translates to unhinge, unseat, or unscrew. I met with Nicolas Herve who gave me an inside rundown on their operations in Paris and across France. They are an amazing force working both outdoors over advertising, as well as motivating people behind closed doors to listen to the public's wishes. They are meeting with the Minister of Landscape this upcoming week in hopes of helping to refocus the changing of billboard law in France which after 20 years, is being rewritten. They are a powerful force in France and now a friend of PublicAdCampaign in New York.

Their Manifesto is extremely similar to my own, including the deep felt conviction that advertising should be presented in a way that gives the viewer the option to take in the message. In most mediums, like television, radio, magazines, newspapers, the viewer has the option to turn off the advertisement, flip the page, and generally make a conscious decision. As outdoor advertising stands now, the public has little options and are often forced to focus their attentions on private messages and commercial concerns. The Debunkers, not particularly interested in the messages presented in advertising but rather with the way in which they are presented, hopes to change outdoor advertising in France to reflect their interest in a viewer with options.

The way they propose to do this while still allowing outdoor advertising is to limit the size of the outdoor advertisements. They suggest 50x70cm which oddly enough is the restriction that's already placed on political advertisements, NGOs, and union organizations across the country. Nicolas explained that by limiting the size of the advert, those who want the message must actually approach the poster because of its size. A interesting idea for a group trying to work within the law to create an honest debate about outdoor advertising's viability in a major metropolitan city.

Debunkers collective- Let’s disobey !

If this isn't a fantastic argument for the reduction of advertising in our public spaces, I don't know what is. More available at the Debunkers Collective.

In terms of advertising, billboards constitute the greatest and oldest aggression and one that no one can avoid. We are free to watch or not to watch TV, to listen or not to listen to the radio, to buy or not to buy a newspaper, but not to move freely without being confronted with a never-ending show of images and slogans. This visual debauchery impairs our view and our perception of traffic signals. It dirties our living space, reduces our freedom of thought and limits our capacity to dream. The confiscation of public space and its commercial exploitation are all the more inadmissible as the landscapes are by law considered “public goods of the nation” and the rules concerning advertising are part of the 5th chapter of the French “Code de l’environnement”, entitled : “Prevention of pollution, risk and nuisance”. Regarding billboards, the advertising system enters our daily lives in the most obvious fashion. By attacking billboard advertising using non-violent direct action, we are making a first inroad into the advertising system and responding to its aggression. All the more as advertising posters are in easy reach !

Valentines Update

I received the following email from the person responsible for the valentines day gift that took place in less than a week ago. I replaced the wiki link he sent with one translated by babelfish so you can read for yourself what Affichage Libre is. I wasn't aware of France's dedication to open public communication. Basically they reserve a certain amount of space in public depending on the population density.


"In theory, these sites of posting in various forms (panel, pillar-shaped billboard, wall…) must be reserved for associations or any person wanting to pass a free non-profit-making or commercial advertisement. Certain communes reserve panels by type of posting by distinguishing these three categories: political posting of expression, associative posting, free expression. Unfortunately, a big number of these spaces of freedom (especially in the great agglomerations) are used by advertisers of spectacles or more or less commercial demonstrations, which removes the free character of these free means of communication."

An interesting idea even if it doesn't fully work. At least they recognize the need for public communication alongside all of the commercial messages.

This was translated by a good friend from the original French email.

Hello!
On the occasion of Valentine's Day I asked the couples amongst my circle of friends if I could take pictures of them while they were kissing. For a few months I've been using the "free posting boards" as a means of free expression (wikipedia); these panels are unique to France, they exist in all our cities in formats of various sizes and accessibility which varies according to local policy. I have the good fortune to live and work in Mulhouse, my city possesses a number of large "affichage libre", I try to put them to good use, and I invite you to do the same (as you will see…). You can see all of my collages on my website. I dedicate this series of collages to all lovers, couples or otherwise, because the important thing is to love. Thank you to all couples that agreed to participate in my little game. A hearty hello from Alsace!

Alsachery

Valentine's Day Kisses From Alsacherie in France

I'm not positive these are advertising structures, but I'm so sure I won't take the time to care. This is the kind of uplifting and personal messages you get instead of advertising when you allow the public access to its visual environment on all levels. To those responsible for this, thank you for a beautiful takeover.

VIA Wooster Collective







You can see the full series here.

In Paris, an anti-ad insurgency

The following quote gets directly to the point of why I do the work I do. Small acts of civil disobedience are the only way I am able to push this important issue to the forefront of people's consciousness. In this case the French are merely carrying on a long history of mischief making that challenges the authority under which they live. It would seem in America we are much less tolerant of this behavior and fail to see the social benefits that come from everyday average citizens forgetting their better judgment in an effort to better the society they live in.

"You see commercial messages every day, you get them right in the face, in the subway, in the street, all the time, and if you don't want to, you do not have the choice," Baret declared over a megaphone. "So we are obliged to resort to civil disobedience. In a symbolic manner, we will tag a few billboards in order to provoke debate and push for things to progress."

VIA The LA times

Email Picture

Audrey Bastide / For The Times

TAKING ACTION: A member of the Dismantlers, a nationwide group that considers large public advertisements to be obtrusive and manipulative, is recorded as he defaces one near Place Malesherbes in Paris.

Activists opposed to billboards invite police to rallies where they tag the offending signs, seeking a day in court.

Reporting from Paris -- Over the centuries, the French have cultivated the fine art of rebellion.

The list of targets encompasses tyrants, wars, colonialism and, above all, capitalism in its many manifestations. The latest enemy may seem unlikely: billboards.

The Dismantlers, as a nationwide group of anti-ad crusaders call themselves, aren't violent or loud or clandestine. In fact, they invite the police to protest rallies where they deface signs. With a copywriter's flair, one of their slogans warns: "Attention! Avert your eyes from ads: You risk being very strongly manipulated." The goal of the Dismantlers is to get arrested, argue the righteousness of their cause in court and, you guessed it, gain publicity.

"We challenge the mercantile society that destroys all human relationships, professional relationships, health, the environment," said Alexandre Baret, 35, a founder of the group. "It's a message that proposes to attack advertising as the fuel of this not very healthy society."

Despite the stick-it-to-the-man rhetoric, there were neckties and briefcases in the crowd at an evening rally here a while back. Part-time insurgents had come from work for the gathering in the Place Malesherbes, an elegant, tree-lined plaza graced by statues of the author Alexandre Dumas and his musketeer hero D'Artagnan, one of literature's most irrepressible swashbucklers.

The 80-odd demonstrators, looking bohemian and stylish, listened to Baret set the ideological stage. The red-bearded schoolteacher and father of four explained that he doesn't want to abolish advertising, just limit signs to no more than 1.2 feet by 1.6 feet. The current wall-size dimensions are obtrusive and oppressive, he said.

The large and colorful billboards that are a fixture of the Paris streetscape are hard to ignore, especially the many suggestive ads for undergarments. Some consider them artistic; religious fundamentalists condemn them as proof of Western decadence.

"You see commercial messages every day, you get them right in the face, in the subway, in the street, all the time, and if you don't want to, you do not have the choice," Baret declared over a megaphone. "So we are obliged to resort to civil disobedience. In a symbolic manner, we will tag a few billboards in order to provoke debate and push for things to progress."

Baret urged the crowd to give a cordial welcome to the police. Advised by the activists ahead of time, the authorities had dispatched a squad of riot police, the renowned head-thumpers of the CRS, or Republican Security Companies.

The officers formed a cordon: burly and stern in blue uniforms, black gloves, pants tucked into lace-up boots. They looked bemused. They were no doubt thankful to tangle with polite leftists instead of housing-project gangs who have been known to "welcome" police with bricks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire.

Under Baret's direction, three activists approached billboards promoting audiovisual products and a television talk show and spray-painted them with slogans. The police slapped on handcuffs and led their prisoners to a van. There was applause. An accordion accompanied the crowd in a popular song, "The Deserter," with lyrics modified for the occasion. And that was that.

The Dismantlers represent an enduring contradiction of the French mentality. The center-right won the last elections by a comfortable margin. Juggernaut industries sell the world everything from jets to trains to wine. The average citizen enjoys long vacations, a beach or country home and a lifestyle that is the envy of the West.

Nonetheless, a large percentage of the population tells pollsters that it is hostile to the capitalist system. That ideological current produced the anti-advertising movement, which took off in 2003 and has won sympathy with its mix of economic and environmental messages.

"I think that when you get down to it, they are right," said Marina, 33, a restaurant worker who stopped to see what the fuss was about in the Place Malesherbes. "Between TV, Internet and advertising billboards, we are told about consumption all the time."

But Marina expressed doubt that this particular mini-revolution would triumph.

"I find it funny, but a little useless," she said. "I think tagging ads bothers passersby more than anything. A sign full of graffiti is even worse than having to look at an ad."

Unlike anarchists or other groups that engage in hit-and-run tactics, the Dismantlers see the courtroom as a battlefield of choice. They gather contributions to pay fines that are often low because judges tend to be lenient and the vandalism is calculated to remain minimal.

Baret appeared at a hearing last month on charges of "unauthorized advertising." The case involved an incident in 2007 when he was caught plastering commuter trains with the "avert your eyes" stickers.

Baret, who like his fellow insurgents is a veteran defendant, had refused to pay the $58 fine. His lawyer argued that his actions were less destructive than the 57,000 giant signs that fill the train stations of France.

"The advertisements are energy-intensive, they use paper from forests," the lawyer said. "It's an assault on individual liberties, an advertising aggression."

In response, the prosecutor reminded the accused that "the tribunal is not a tribune." A lawyer representing the French railroad company, which demanded a symbolic $1.30 in damages and $650 for legal costs, chided the activists for returning to rabble-rousing of "years ago."

A verdict is expected in February. But the Dismantlers say they have already won by making people stop and think about the messages that bombard them each day.

"The advertising budget in France is $39 billion a year," said Antoine Trouillard, a 26-year-old philosophy student and activist.

"That's equivalent to the entire education budget in France. . . . Our movement goes a lot further than a simple symbolic gesture. And that's what we want the public to understand."

Pushing the Envelop When Art's Just Not Enough

This post is in response to the comment string left on the last post regarding PosterBoy's illegal billboard takedown.

The fact of the matter is attention needs to be drawn to this issue. With such amazing work being done and little attention being paid outside the art community, maybe it takes something outside of conventional means like PosterBoy's billboard takedown to actually address the problem. Here are some examples of illegal work that openly challenges advertising's messages and more importantly use of public space, yet hasn't managed to get your panties in a bunch.

Doctor D-London

Peter Fuss-Unknown

Jordan Seiler-New York City

Mantis-London

Unknown-France

Hacking “Harassment by Advertising”

VIA AAA
by André Gattolin

French Protesters Wage War on Billboard

by Max Colchester
The Wall Street Journal September 26th, 2008

Small Band of Activists Hopes Graffiti Campaign Will Prompt Government to Ban Large Outdoor Ads

Paris-On Friday, Alex Baret plans to board a train to central Paris, pull out a can of spray paint and deface a billboard, as he has done every last Friday of the month for more than two years. The slogan he prefers to leave scrawled on his targets: Harcèlement Publicitaire, or Harassment by Advertising.

The 34-year-old musician, who lives in the city’s suburbs, hopes such acts of vandalism will encourage the French government to ban large billboards, which he says “force messages onto unsuspecting passersby and ruin the landscape.” Just a handful of protesters join Mr. Baret in his monthly graffiti blitzes, but scores of sympathizers typically gather to watch. And he has rallied several French philosophers and intellectuals to his cause.

His campaign is part of France’s love-hate relationship with advertising. Though much of the French public doesn’t like outdoor ads-58%, according to a 2007 poll-France is home to some of the biggest advertising firms in the world, including Publicis and JCDecaux.

Hostility toward advertising is deeply rooted in France’s history, says Publicis Chief Executive Maurice Levy. “We have a culture” that doesn’t “like commerce….This goes back to the Middle Ages,” he says. Ads are a “scapegoat” for people looking to reject certain forms of capitalism, he adds.

Because of their prominence, billboards are obvious targets for French anticapitalist sentiment, says Philippe Legendre, the acting director of the Institute of Research and Advertising Studies in France.

But distaste for outdoor ads isn’t uniquely French; small groups of protesters are active in other countries, too. In Belgium, Ad Hiders obscures billboards by covering them with plastic sheets. In New York, the Anti-Advertising Agency, which has about 20 members, frequently paints over outdoor poster ads with black paint, focusing on ads hung illegally around city construction sites. It also works to replace outdoor ads with art.

The protests here come at a time when outdoor advertising has already lost some of its luster with French marketers. Though €1.1 billion ($1.6 billion), or 10% of France’s annual ad revenues, come from outdoor ads, compared with just 3.9% in the U.S., their number has declined by 50% over the past 20 years, partly because more billboards have been placed inside subway stations and airports. The business also is suffering from France’s decision last year to allow retailers to advertise on national television.

Protesters have damaged the image of outdoor advertising, says Etienne Reignoux, head of marketing at Clear Channel France, a unit of U.S. outdoor-advertising firm Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings. “I can’t argue with them, except that if [billboards] allow companies to finance services, such as bus stops, this is giving something back,” he says. The protests, he adds, are too small to hurt outdoor-ad companies’ bottom lines.

Mr. Baret says the seeds for his campaign were sewn in the spring of 1997, when he was riding the Paris subway and he looked up at an ad. “I suddenly thought: ‘I am in a prison,’ ” he says. “I saw the slogan, the lies, and it disgusted me.”

Eight years later, Mr. Baret, who plays the double bass, helped form Les Deboulonneurs-”The Debunkers”-a group with 100 to 300 active members that lobbies to limit the size of individual ads to roughly 27.5 inches high by 20 inches wide.

French billboards tend to be smaller and less well-lit than American ones. French law says outdoor ads can be no bigger than about 170 square feet, except in special circumstances, and shouldn’t be placed in the countryside. But each municipality can decide limits on ad size.

Bernard Stiegler, director of the department of cultural development at Paris’s Centre Pompidou, recently offered to act as a witness for Mr. Baret in a case the state brought against him for destruction of private property. Mr. Stiegler says Mr. Baret’s group is “responsible” and is holding advertisers to account for their excesses. “They are protecting the ad industry from itself,” he says. “They will be heroes one day.”

The movement now includes other groups, such as the Anti-Advertising Resistance. In 2003, hundreds of demonstrators fanned out in towns across France and defaced thousands of ads. Companies including Publicis unit Métrobus filed lawsuits against 62 people. Mr. Baret was one of those charged, and was ordered to pay €2,500 in compensation. But he says Les Deboulonneurs “don’t care” if they get arrested, and even warns the police of his actions beforehand. Some protest groups, however, stick to legal activities.

The industry is remaining stoic. “There is no point rolling around on the floor crying,” says Stephané Dottelonde, president of the French Union for Outdoor Advertising. “You have to respect that these groups exist.”

street art

This is one of my favorite street artists around. I met Brice a long time ago and dont know what he is up to these days but back when I met him he was doing this. Amazing.

Paris-why not?

I visited Paris in May this year and whenever I travel I watch public advertising pretty closely, though not with the intention of doing any work. Its a flaw and I know it but thats the way it is. Given that, I could not resist the temptation when I realized that mere magnets held the plastic covers over a large portion of street level small billboards in the downtown area. I stole a few posters and grabbed some supplies from a local arts and crafts store and made a series of these on a public ping pong table. Why not?

Bus Shelter similarities-Paris/New York

The image on the left is from a NYC bus shelter ad and the one on the right is from a Parisian bus shelter ad. Its interesting to note how global ad culture really is evolving as one. Despite the differences in products and possibly advertising companies, the tactics are relatively similar. Advertising spans all cultures as the dissemination industry no capitalist nation can do without and is thus more or less a global product.