| Politics & Society |
That Man at the Zebra Crossing
By Nidhi Dugar Kundalia
2012-07-19
I’m making the twice cooked Tuscan bread soup that Linda used to make at our villa in Florence while we soaked up the sun in the yard overlooking acres of verdant vineyards. The aroma of jasmine floats in from the garland that my maid had weaved last evening. The floral notes blending with the garlic from big pot on the stove, creates the perfect memory of our holiday in Florence.
The chrome of crumbling old buildings. Little boats bobbing against weak waves of River Arno. Hourly chime of church bells, weaving their way through the trattorias along the cobbled lanes. Street artists dabbing their brushes in thick bobs of water colour. The afternoon lights fading, only to cast an ethereal glow across the city, which till day remains my favourite Italian memory.
My days in Florence feel like they have blurred into a few images, the detailing slipping through my fingers but the seemingly irrelevant moments getting tucked into spots in my brain that I may never find again- and perhaps I don’t need to.
Florence is at the same time there- sitting on a harbour of Italy in south Europe, hanging its boot out into the Mediterranean – and here, back home, a stubborn ember in my mind.
A distinct memory is of my jaunt thorough the high district of Florence. While I was crossing at a street to check out a paper shop, I paused to escape a speeding motorino. And then I saw it. The coolest ‘No Entrance’ sign I had ever seen.
A lot of visitors to Italy dislike street art. You come expecting heritage building, pristine marble ruins and end up seeing graffiti everywhere. It’s easy to be annoyed with the vandalism of something so ancient, but this? This was clever. They were more of these. All over Florence. And then I remembered seeing a few in Rome too.
Along with the recipes of bread soup, courgette parmesan salad, I dug it up on the internet as soon as I came back home. A few travel blogs spoke in awe of the artist of the signs. And a couple of newspapers spoke of the ‘slightly’ illegal urban art. Two years after he started working on signs, the police has now decided to stick to the policy of- “We’ll ignore it as long as you keep the cool quotient”.
Clet Abraham is a 43 year old French artist of the signs who has been living in Italy for over 20 years. This “guerrilla” act of art is just one manifestation of his often surreal and colourful approach to the world.
After a few calls and many exchange of mails later, I got in touch with Clet. In broken English, he told me his work can be found in Rome, Florence, Paris, Turin, London and Valencia and is experiencing remarkable success with private collectors in Paris, Monte Carlo and New York. Some of his signs talk about [Italian] culture of “anti-responsibility”, some mimic da Vinci’s Vitruvian man, some question the religious beliefs of Italians and most simply pick on day-to-day life of Italy. They helped me understand Italy better than any travelogue I’ve read. Here’s the interview with him-
DO your street signs carry any message?
My street signs reflect upon “common visual space”. As a professional in the world of visual space, the streets are to attract attention without stealing their original purpose, talk about the absurdity of the situations our daily lives revolve upon and propose a constructive and respectful alternative.
Has the government of Florence been co-operative?
No, the government doesn’t help me, but now they have stopped taking away my stickers on the signs. They accept my work but not in an official way.
How did the idea of common man statue come up? Who worked with you on
the execution of the idea?
***
The Common Man statue is intended as a stimulus to take an important and risky step. It represents one of those moments on one’s life in which one needs to make a decision even not knowing its consequences (the void below him is this unknowingness). So Uomo Comune decides to take this step, and invites everyone to do it. The irony lays in being part of this dangerous spectacle from the safe side of the railing. The act is permanently frozen in limbo, being a sculpture that doesn’t move and will never finish stepping out, and so will never know if his choice was the right one or not – the only way for us to know is if we were to try it ourselves.
The provocation here is having installed him without permission, which involves a choice: I, personally, do want to take a step. If you want to journey with me, leave up this symbol of intention; if you remove it, to me it means that you don’t have any intention of moving ahead because you don’t have the courage to take risks. So the real artistic act is composed of various intrinsically linked components: location, object, and intervention; it’s not a simple sculpture, the form of which might be up for discussion.
What kind of material do you use to create stickers and paint signs?
The stickers are vinyl. It’s easy to remove but good material to be outside.
What do you think about the urban art?
The urban art is very important because it is the way of freedom. You can find a lot of different kinds of street art, and it will be a real protest.
Which graffiti artists do you look up to?
There are a lot of good graffiti artists- Blu, Banksy, JR and many more.
What are you working on now? Any future plans?
I just finished making a big wood nose (12m) for an old tower of Florence.
***- arttrav.com
I’m making the twice cooked Tuscan bread soup that Linda used to make at our villa in Florence while we soaked up the sun in the yard overlooking acres of verdant vineyards. The aroma of jasmine floats in from the garland that my maid had weaved last evening. The floral notes blending with the garlic from big pot on the stove, creates the perfect memory of our holiday in Florence.
The chrome of crumbling old buildings. Little boats bobbing against weak waves of River Arno. Hourly chime of church bells, weaving their way through the trattorias along the cobbled lanes. Street artists dabbing their brushes in thick bobs of water colour. The afternoon lights fading, only to cast an ethereal glow across the city, which till day remains my favourite Italian memory.
My days in Florence feel like they have blurred into a few images, the detailing slipping through my fingers but the seemingly irrelevant moments getting tucked into spots in my brain that I may never find again- and perhaps I don’t need to.
Florence is at the same time there- sitting on a harbour of Italy in south Europe, hanging its boot out into the Mediterranean – and here, back home, a stubborn ember in my mind.
A distinct memory is of my jaunt thorough the high district of Florence. While I was crossing at a street to check out a paper shop, I paused to escape a speeding motorino. And then I saw it. The coolest ‘No Entrance’ sign I had ever seen.
A lot of visitors to Italy dislike street art. You come expecting heritage building, pristine marble ruins and end up seeing graffiti everywhere. It’s easy to be annoyed with the vandalism of something so ancient, but this? This was clever. They were more of these. All over Florence. And then I remembered seeing a few in Rome too.
Along with the recipes of bread soup, courgette parmesan salad, I dug it up on the internet as soon as I came back home. A few travel blogs spoke in awe of the artist of the signs. And a couple of newspapers spoke of the ‘slightly’ illegal urban art. Two years after he started working on signs, the police has now decided to stick to the policy of- “We’ll ignore it as long as you keep the cool quotient”.
Clet Abraham is a 43 year old French artist of the signs who has been living in Italy for over 20 years. This “guerrilla” act of art is just one manifestation of his often surreal and colourful approach to the world.
After a few calls and many exchange of mails later, I got in touch with Clet. In broken English, he told me his work can be found in Rome, Florence, Paris, Turin, London and Valencia and is experiencing remarkable success with private collectors in Paris, Monte Carlo and New York. Some of his signs talk about [Italian] culture of “anti-responsibility”, some mimic da Vinci’s Vitruvian man, some question the religious beliefs of Italians and most simply pick on day-to-day life of Italy. They helped me understand Italy better than any travelogue I’ve read. Here’s the interview with him-
DO your street signs carry any message?
My street signs reflect upon “common visual space”. As a professional in the world of visual space, the streets are to attract attention without stealing their original purpose, talk about the absurdity of the situations our daily lives revolve upon and propose a constructive and respectful alternative.
Has the government of Florence been co-operative?
No, the government doesn’t help me, but now they have stopped taking away my stickers on the signs. They accept my work but not in an official way.
How did the idea of common man statue come up? Who worked with you on
the execution of the idea?
***
The Common Man statue is intended as a stimulus to take an important and risky step. It represents one of those moments on one’s life in which one needs to make a decision even not knowing its consequences (the void below him is this unknowingness). So Uomo Comune decides to take this step, and invites everyone to do it. The irony lays in being part of this dangerous spectacle from the safe side of the railing. The act is permanently frozen in limbo, being a sculpture that doesn’t move and will never finish stepping out, and so will never know if his choice was the right one or not – the only way for us to know is if we were to try it ourselves.
The provocation here is having installed him without permission, which involves a choice: I, personally, do want to take a step. If you want to journey with me, leave up this symbol of intention; if you remove it, to me it means that you don’t have any intention of moving ahead because you don’t have the courage to take risks. So the real artistic act is composed of various intrinsically linked components: location, object, and intervention; it’s not a simple sculpture, the form of which might be up for discussion.
What kind of material do you use to create stickers and paint signs?
The stickers are vinyl. It’s easy to remove but good material to be outside.
What do you think about the urban art?
The urban art is very important because it is the way of freedom. You can find a lot of different kinds of street art, and it will be a real protest.
Which graffiti artists do you look up to?
There are a lot of good graffiti artists- Blu, Banksy, JR and many more.
What are you working on now? Any future plans?
I just finished making a big wood nose (12m) for an old tower of Florence.
***- arttrav.com
