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.

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.