French artist OX’s latest billboard takeover in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, is a site- and weather-specific artwork planned for this out-of-town location due to OX’s penchant for displaying his artwork against barren suburban landscapes, as well as the changing nature of Parisian billboard space, which makes it increasingly difficult to find suitable billboards to hijack.
This latest work incorporates the billboard stand into the work, which OX knotted and camouflaged against the blue Parisian sky. OX, who lives on the eastern outskirts of Paris, has hijacked advertising billboards all over France and Europe, and says he doesn’t like the central Parisian architecture for displaying his works: the streets are too narrow to give passers-by an adequate view of the works, and bad for photography, are two reasons. Another is that he finds it increasingly difficult to hijack billboards in central Paris.
The first thing that comes to mind when this writer learns of this difficulty is police pressure. However, OX admits that he has never been caught papering his minimalist artworks over billboard publicité. The difficulty comes from the proliferation of new forms of billboard technology, such as the glass-fronted, revolving advertisements, which do not lend themselves to an artist using paper and glue. As a result, the old-style paper-and-glue billboards can now be found mainly on the outskirts of Paris.
OX will soon visit Birmingham in England where billboard technology is yet to dominate, and one senses that he is excited. Everywhere, in Britain’s second most populous city, one may find wooden framed billboards.
In the face of adversity, OX spends time planning where to place his work. This planning also serves another of his main aims, which is to give context to his pieces. Sometimes, however, there can be hiccups. This latest billboard takeover, for example, was planned for a location 500 metres up the road from the one pictured, but the content of the existing billboard – an AIDS awareness campaign – was unforeseen.
OX’s urban artworks are not deliberately anti-consumerist. His personal views on the matter are not present in his decision to paste his artwork over billboards. However, it can be assumed that he is conscientious about not obscuring advertisements that promote awareness of sexually transmitted diseases.
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To visit OX’s website, go here.
To visit the site of an explicitly anti-consumerist organisation with a focus on billboards, a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society, Adbusters, go here.
To visit the site of Jordan Seiler’s, Public Ad Campaign blog, go here.