A brain to think about what you do when you travel on the road. An eye to see, a nose that almost shows the way. And a mouth, or rather almost a kiss, perhaps to instill good feelings. But nothing, it lasted maybe half a day the latest creation by the Franco-Florentine street artist Clet, the creator of bizarre and funny – but often thought-provoking – road signs on the Ponte alle Grazie.
Because the Municipal Police quickly removed it.
“I’m trying to convey reflections on the functioning of signage, therefore on the language of the image, which I have been studying for 40 years now”, Clet comments sadly after seeing his work come to nothing in just a few hours. And it was he himself, with a tag on social media, who made the municipal administration aware of it. “For a year the signs are missing and no one notices, can a reflection arise from this fact? Unfortunately not – he continues in his outburst – It is easier to define my interventions as dangerous, while drawing attention to signage like no other, calling into question an obsolete system of rules. Should I think that there is not the will, or that there is not the capacity, for reflection on the part of the municipal police and the Municipality of Florence? One thing is for sure: if I hadn’t tagged the municipality of Florence in my post today the sculpture would still be in situ now, and who knows for how long before some censor noticed.”
There have been no signs at the beginning of Lungarno Torrigiani for more or less a year.
This is why Clet decided to remedy the situation where he had already worked in previous years by giving passers-by some of his most discussed works.
At Christmas 2020 he created a nativity scene, on March 8, 2023 for International Women’s Day he filled the signs with stickers dedicated to Iranian women in struggle. This time he opted for “a different symbolism and for once also free from the meaning of the sign itself”, as he himself explains.
“The road signs were stolen and no one noticed – says Clet from his Instagram profile – Since then traffic has flowed regularly without the need for any signs. The municipality of Florence is experimenting with this policy Dutch city, Drachten (45,000 inhabitants) which decided to eliminate all signs to focus road safety on the responsibility of each individual and respect for the weakest. Road accidents are halved. Because you should guide your life with brains and a lot of heart and not in obedience to theories, dogmas and rules, which are too often obsolete. Respect for the rules as the only horizon is an invitation to inattention and lack of responsibility”.
The work created also wanted to be a new way to make people reflect on an aspect dear to Clet, often accused of “vandalism”.
“My art is often wrongly judged as an act of vandalism and I’m tired of this judgement. The moment I stick stickers on a sign I don’t eliminate its meaning but I amplify it while the vandal is the one who destroys and takes away a meaning I make art and respect the function, art has respect, conveys a message, enhances and builds while vandalism destroys. And my question also goes to the administration which often accuses me of vandalism if it cannot understand the difference what’s with art, how can it fight against vandalism?”.
Tags: hadnt tagged Municipality
