600 Fake Ads in Paris during Climate Change Conference

600 Fake Outdoor Ads in Paris Blast Corporate Sponsors of the COP21 Climate Talks Brandalism stunt targets brands' hypocrisyBy Angela Natividad

• November 30, 2015, 9:38 AM EST

Couldn't make it to Dismaland before its rapid shut-down? That's OK. There's always Paris.

Just in time for the COP21 Climate Conference, an organization called Brandalism has hijacked over 600 outdoor ad spaces in the city, replacing them with climate change-related art ... and what, at first glance, look like ordinary ads for brands like Total, Air France, Dow Chemicals, GDF Suez and Volkswagen.

The difference is, these ads reveal unpleasant truths.



All the targeted brands are corporate sponsors of COP21. (The art also appears in ad space owned by outdoor ad firm JC Decaux, itself an official sponsor.) The objective is to highlight the hypocrisy inherent in those companies associating themselves with an event that their actions suggest they don't really care about. 

The Volkswagen piece below, created by street artist Barnbrook, appropriates the look and feel of classic VW ads but reads, "We're sorry that we got caught. Now that we've been caught, we're trying to make you think we care about the environment. But we're not the only ones. #redlines #D12 #ClimateGames"



The #ClimateGames hashtag refers to what Brandalism calls "the world's largest disobedient adventure game." The ads also include calls to protest the Solutions 21 conference, a corporate expo at Paris' Grand Palais during the COP21; and the hashtag #redlines refers tothe minimum changes necessary for a just and inhabitable planet. 

"By sponsoring the climate talks, major polluters such as Air France and GDF-Suez-Engie can promote themselves as part of the solution—when actually they are part of the problem," Joe Elan of Brandalism says.



Other targets of the art include heads of state like François Hollande, David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama and Shinzo Abi.

Brandalism, a cross between "brand" and "vandalism," positions itself as "a revolt against corporate control of the visual realm." It launched in 2012 with the goal of seizing public space back from advertisers. In May 2014, the organization replaced over 360 corporate ad spaces with handmade art from 40 international artists.



For the COP21, 80 artists from 19 countries tossed their hats into the ring, including Banksy collaborator Paul Insect, Neta Harari and Jimmy Cauty. Many worked on Dismaland, Banksy's 36-day "bemusement park," which appropriated familiar icons like Disneyland characters and placed them in less charming contexts.

The piece below is a clear echo of that project.



"We are taking their spaces back because we want to challenge the role advertising plays in promoting unsustainable consumerism," says one participating artist. "Because the advertising industry force feeds our desires for products created from fossil fuels, they are intimately connected to causing climate change. As is the case with the climate talks and their corporate sponsored events, outdoor advertising ensures that those with the most amount of money are able to ensure that their voices get heard above all else."



The ads went up on Black Friday, notable for inspiring consumer stampedes (and resulting deaths), but also because residents here in Paris were forbidden from gathering in public for security reasons this weekend, a result of the terrorist events of Nov. 13.

"The government has chosen to ban the big civil society mobilizations—but big business events can continue," says Brandalism's Bill Posters. "The multinationals responsible for climate change can keep greenwashing their destructive business models, but the communities directly impacted by them are silenced."



One result of the Parisian lockdown against big gatherings was the cancellation of a planned climate-related demonstration, slated for Sunday. In response, hundreds of Parisians spent the weekend placing shoes in front of, and around, the Place de la République, the public square where most such demonstrations take place.

The effort was meant to be a gesture of silent condemnation, with shoes representing those who would have marched on Sunday. Despite this, thousands of demonstrators still gathered to protest in person, creating a human chain along the route of the planned march, leading to a violent clash with police that involved projectiles, baton blows and tear gas. Many chanted, "A state of emergency is a police state."

Some 174 people were jailed and 26 placed under house arrest, owing to individual histories of violence. 

The objective of the protest was to urge leaders to agree to deep emissions cuts, and to help poor countries better manage global warming. In total, some 570,000 people across 175 countries marched on Sunday, says climate change rally organizer Avaaz. 

World leaders representing 196 different countries are gathering in Paris for the COP21 discussions, including Obama, Hollande and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But while the effort looks sincere, the act is perhaps as empty as the event's sponsorship roster. 

Secretary of State John Kerry, for example, said this month that the COP21 would not result in "legally binding reduction targets"—meaning that even if agreements are made among all parties, it isn't likely they can be enforced. 

"It's now more important than ever to call out their lies and speak truth to power," Posters concludes. "We call on people to take to the streets during the COP21 to confront the fossil fuel industry. We cannot leave the climate talks in the hands of politicians and corporate lobbyists who created this mess in the first place."

See other provocations below. More art is available at the Brandalism gallery.

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Topics: Green, Brandalism, COP21, France, Out Of Home, Politics, Creative

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Project Report “Wishing Lamp”

Curating Public Narrative

Project Report “Wishing Lamp”

By: Kevin Ko (Kwang Min Ko), Mackenzie Lestan, Reven, SeonAe Moon 

Introduction

The learning aspect of Anthony Whitfield’s course <Curating Public Narrative.A.Fa15>

Our group seeks to install our “Wishing Lamp” structure in three chosen public locations, Washington Square Park, Bryant Park, and Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City. Our group consist four Parsons students, one senior student majoring in Photograph, one senior student majoring in Integrated Design, and one senior and one junior Design Management students. We have worked in multiple phases to develop for our design for public art installation project. This report is final proposal before we install our art project in three public locations for a period of time in the future.  

Objectives

The main objective of our project is to give people a comfort zone and create unified environment that neighbors or visitors from the entire world can think and express their feelings in public space. We have chosen three different park locations, which have different demographics resulting different and unique outcome for each locations. We will be installing three large lamp sculptures. The design of the lamp is a simple, large rectangle shape lamp has light wires around, similar to Japanese traditional lamp. The color of the lamp will change in certain set up time, which can changes the mood of the environment depending on the colors. Our group wants our installed art project to create space within the space, for people to freely interact and express their thinking with our installed lamp structure. People can use wishing tag papers that will be installed on the bottom of our structure. 

We want to observe how each different park locations with variety of demographics have different voices and different expression. 

Description of Art and Installation (Location)

1. Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park is one of the best known of New York City’s 1,900 public parks.

Location: Foot of Fifth Avenue, bordered by Waverly Place, University Place, MacDougal Street

Building Near by: Most of the buildings surrounding the park now belong to New York University, but many have at one time served as homes and studios for artists. Some of the buildings have been built by NYU while others have been converted from former uses in to academic and residential buildings.

Neighborhood: It is a landmark in Manhattan in the neighborhood of Greenwich Village as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. It is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

2. Brooklyn Bridge Park (Dumbo)

Location: Furman St, Water St, John St, Old Fulton St, Main St. It’s end of the Brooklyn Bridge

Building Near by: There is Brooklyn Bridge and Wall Street office buildings near by and residential building.

Neighborhood: The park offers breathtaking view of Lower Manhattan and numerous recreational facilities such as; playgrounds, basketball courts, and sports fields. The park attracts tons of Tourists and New Yorkers everyday. 

3. Bryant Park

Location: Fifth and Sixth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets

Building Near by: Salmon Tower, W.R. Grace Building, Bryant Park Building, 1095 Avenue of the Americas, Bryant Park Studio Building, American Radiator Building, Knox Hat Building, The New York Public Library

Neighborhood: Bryant Park is privately managed Public Park by Bryant Park Corporation. The park is filled with office workers on sunny weekdays, city visitors on the weekends, and revelers during the holidays. One of the biggest features of the park is a large lawn that turns in to skate rink during the winter. There are large trees surrounding the park blocking the view of congested New York City view, witch creates comfortable public environment for exhausted workers and pedestrian.

Materials-The Blue Print

                

PORTRAITS OF NEW YORK

Portraits of New York Patricia, Ezra, Peter

Living in New York City is fast, loud, and solitary. We go about our daily lives surrounded by thousands of others, and yet each of us is separated from one another by thick invisible barriers of "personal" space, with our heads down engaging only with our hand held digital devices. In The Radicant, Nicholas Borriaud describes modern society's aporia of balancing the cultural singularity of modernity with individual cultural heritage and tradition. To expose internal contradiction such as this, society has always turned to art as a force for bringing people together through its ability to expose and express, as a society, our deepest concerns, values, and as individuals, our sense of self. Within the artistic realm, portraits have a unique ability to simultaneously capture the essence of a specific individual, as well as the artist’s sensibility towards the zeitgeist in general. In his 1935 essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," Walter Benjamin states that the essence of art is "here and now... Its unique existence at the place where it happens to be." Our project does exactly that: create a platform for artists to create art "here and now," and in direct relation to their subjects who simultaneously enjoy this same immediate experience.

As a group. we propose to combine these concepts to create a system of using art as a tool for social change by connecting the public with artists and the process of creating illustrated portraits for everyday New Yorkers. The goal is to connect people to and through art. The following is our statement of purpose and curatorial design: Portraits of New York is a long-term public art project that uses a transportable, street-vendor set-up to visit multiple New York sites, while partnering with New York artists who will create free illustrated portraits of New Yorkers. The illustrations and participants are documented and photographed, which is then shared publicly via social media and occasional public installments and printed matter.

As a group, we are the curators of our project. Sourcing both emerging and established artists to participate is a key element in our project. Some of the organizations that we would use to source these artists and create a presence in the art community are: artist clubs, such as The Art Students League of New York, 92nd Street Y, and the National Academy Museum; New York design and art academies, such as SVA, Parsons, Pratt, Columbia University, FIT, and NYU Tisch; established portrait artists such as Lois Woolley, Marvin Mattleson, and Mickalene Thomas; and street art organizations, such as Brooklyn Street Art and Street Art NYC. Through these organizations, as well as direct outreach from us, we will select and screen artists who want to participate. This process will include three letters of recommendation provided by the artist, as well as sit down interview conducted by Portraits of New York. In exchange for their involvement, we will provide participating artists with a platform to advertise both their work and name. This will be done via our home website and our cart, which will hold pamphlets and promotional material.

Particular governmental organizations, as well as community groups and institutions will also be important to the success of our project. The New York State Council on the Arts hosts regional networking events for artists and is responsible for distributing financial assistance to individual artists. It will be important to be in contact with this organization in order to create a connection not only with the art community, but also with the institutions responsible for supporting artists. The Brooklyn Arts Council, NurtureArt, and White Columns are other separate organizations that could provide beneficial support and connections for Portraits of New York. Since our project is not only working with artists, but also with communities, Museum outreach programs such as Whitney Museum Outreach and Art Access: Queens Museum could provide crucial support. Specific community and cultural organizations such as Gay Center Manhattan, Pride Center Brooklyn, and Asian American Arts Alliance would also be ideal resources since cultural identities within New York are not necessarily geographical.

Our project is intended to be long-term and continuous. It will, therefore, included a multitude of sites and locations in New York. The point is to visit various neighborhoods and demographics. In order to more easily navigate the convoluted NYC government regulations, our physical set up will be stream-lined and portable. We will customize a regulation size street cart manufactured by reputable companies such as Icicle Tricycles. Since we are a non-profit arts institution, we have the benefit of having slightly less strict rules for where we are allowed to be located in the city. Following particular guidelines, however, such as City Parks Regulations and City Street Vendor Regulations will be crucial to having successful set-ups. The locations we choose will revolve around several factors including: legal accessibility, foot traffic, local demographic or cultural identity, time of year, and existing vendors.

The cart will work as a visual advertisement for passers-by, a display to advertise and increase awareness for each participating artist, an art board / table for the artist to create his or her work, a place for both the participant and artist to sit, and a physical object that helps to create a feeling of comfort and artistic inspiration. For each participant, the artist will begin with the same two questions: What makes New York, New York? What makes you, you? The artist is encouraged to engage the person in conversation, while they create that person's portrait. Each session is expected to last between ten and fifteen minutes.

At the end of each session, both the illustration and the participant will be photographed and shared via social media and our website. The portrait itself will act as a documentation of the conversation, as it will inherently affect the artist's illustration. Video will be used on occasion to document all conversations at a particular site. Portraits of New York will selectively create compilations via short documentary films, printed media, and public murals throughout the city.

A realistic timeline for planning, design, and execution deadline for this project would be three to four months. This involves establishing connections with various organizations mentioned above; designing and manufacturing a street cart; designing, building, and launching a website; and contacting, screening, and establishing dates for participating artists. Costs involved with this project would include purchase of web domain; initial building and future maintenance of our street cart; printing or publishing printed media; providing participating artists with a budget for obtaining needed materials; renting or purchasing camera equipment and lighting—video and photography; and printing promotional material to hand out to participants. Furthermore, additional costs should be accounted for possible specialist technical assistance, such as from lighting, camera, and digital technicians.

So Far... Dominique DeVito

Brooklyn
Language Wall

Dominique DeVito

Theme: social anxiety

(performance)

Group mission statement: Our overall mission is reflecting the fear of people interacting in this day and age through multiple performance
pieces held throughout the city. We live in a time where people are connected 24/7 online via smartphones, computers, and tablets. The
connection of a simple face-to-face conversation is rapidly disappearing. Social anxiety over simple conversations is something that many people face. This is a new problem. The four of us will attempt to tackle this problem via four different
performance art pieces. The performances will be meant to encourage the public to step away from their smartphones, interact with the art, and most importantly, each other. 

Concept-

In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn there is a wonderful mix of cultures. It is a kind of central hub for all of the surrounding areas that have more divided communities. As part of the theme “confronting social anxiety” I want to encourage the public to interact with people they have never met before. These are people you may pass by every day, people that live in your neighborhood, maybe even on your block, but since we are so consumed in our smart phones and other technology it prevents us from actually getting to know these people. I’m sure many people have had the experience of running into the same people on the subway or at a bus station daily and yet they know nothing about each other.  

For my project I would like to create a Memory Wall. Something that almost everyone in Brooklyn (and New York in general) has in common is immigrating from another place. Whether its you, your parents or grandparents, its very rare to be more than third generation American in many places in Brooklyn. This is especially true in Bensonhurst and its surrounding areas. I would like to have a huge wall, and written on it would be “What is one memory you have from where you first lived?”, it would be written in different languages. This is open enough that it doesn’t only pertain to immigrants, since mostly everyone has moved at least once in their life. Spray paint and chalk would be provided, and people would be encouraged to write phrases, names, quotes and memories from their past. The end result, hopefully, would be all different people interacting and sharing their stories with one another, as they write them on the wall. 

Related Projects:

-before I die

-“I’ve lived in a 1 bedroom apartment in brooklyn for 2 years and it costs 2,000 a month”

Tumblr 

account for
documenting (with comments allowed)

County: Kings 

Community Board 11, 

Bath Beach, Gravesend, Mapleton, and Bensonhurst, 

Brooklyn Community Board 11 2214 Bath Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11214, 

Phone: 718-266-8800, Email: info@brooklyncb11.org, 

Chair: William Guarinello, District Manager: Marnee Elias-Pavia, 

Board Meeting: Second Thursday, 7:30pm, Cabinet Meeting: Per agenda, 

Precinct(s):62, Precinct Phone(s): 718-236-2611

City Council: 

VINCENT J. GENTILE, 

District 43 - Council Member - Democrat, 

Chair - Committee on Oversight and Investigations, 

Entered City Council: March 2003, 

Represents: Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights

Location: 

garages on 67th st between 16th and new Utrecht

(Graffiti Overlap)

Michael C Maffai & Lisa Ammirabile own
nearly all of the garages and people rent them

https://youtu.be/lncGrlQr2Og

Radicant quote that relates to my project:

“The time seems ripe to reconstruct the modern for the present moment, to reconfigure it for the specific context in which we are living.” 

This quote greatly relates to my project since it is about taking the past and revamping it with other peoples memories and feelings. These are things people carry with them each day and it will be a forum for them to express this among other parts of history. 

materials : spray paint & question

possible participants : albertus joseph

selection/participation criteria : strong family ties and graffiti background

developed budget : 500$

public approval process plan : aquire permits, and permission from owners of garrages

draft of what one would present to potential participants in the project : question; what is one memory from your first home?

marketing and promotion plan : tumblr page spread on social media

How will you know if you have been successful in realizing your project? : if the wall is filled with memories

What are your desired outcomes? : to have no space left on the garages

generates product? : final product is the covered garages

can it be replicated under different circumstances? : yes

What is its reach into communities and what does that look like? : combined memories in graffiti

How will this project be funded? : personal money

What is the timetable it will require? : one month (preferrably June)

Dominique DeVito

800 words essay to introduce project/exhibition 

“Memories in Language” Wall

The concept of my project is quite a simple one. It stems from the location that my exhibition will take place. In Bensonhurst Brooklyn there are multiple communities of people living in close proximity. These people come from all different backgrounds and cultures and yet they barely know anything about each other. People are seen on trains, walking on sidewalks, at bus stops, the same people every day that pass by each other, but no one bothers to talk to one another at all since they are too involved in their smartphones and other devices. These devices promote social isolation further then cultural differences ever would. Despite being constantly connected, in reality we are all disconnected. I see this as a real problem. Everyone, but especially immigrants, have amazing stories about their past lives to tell and I think that is much more of a worthy conversation then anything posted on Facebook or Instagram. The true premise behind this concept was to find a way to get people to share their stories in one of the most diverse neighborhoods, and to come together as a community through language that is not seen behind a screen.

This project greatly relates to live in an urban environment. As previously stated, in large cities we can pass by the same people every day and yet never speak to them. In smaller, more community driven towns, this is a bit different. People know and can rely upon their neighbors. Growing up I always heard my relatives say that Brooklyn was once like that, and now it’s not. I have a suspicion that technology has been the deciding factor in this, and that our communication now takes place on devices rather than in face to face conversations. I chose to deal with language since that is the real force of communication between all people. Even if people can not understand another language they can still hear and see the words being written and spoken. I also chose to overlay my project on top of preciously written graffiti because I feel that the past cannot be erased (what this project focuses on is the past specifically). People get to share their memories, feelings, and emotions on top of what was already there. 

The beautiful thing about involvement with artists in this project is that the creators and artists will be the people of Bensonhurst. They will be selected of their own accord. There will be no specific people promoting this project at all times, but rather, people will come upon this question that has been placed on something the people of the neighborhood find to generally be an ugly space and they will decide to answer this question and turn it into something beautiful. The willingness of the community will be the deciding factor in how many artists or participants are involved with this project on a whole. 

The site will be the garages in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn on 67th street near 16th avenue. This site is notorious in Bensonhurst for being “ugly” and an eye sore. It is hated by the community because of the offensive things that are graffitied on some of the garages, and the general unwanted tags that cover the spaces that people rent. Weather conditions may deter people from being on the street but it will have no real effect on the actual end result of the mural that will come out of this project. 

This project has no real effect on governmental structures. It does not pertain to publicly owned property. These garages are rented by private renters and all of them are owned by two people. However, they are still public spaces since the public will be seeing them every day when they pass by this bustling street and intersection. Regulations will pertain mostly in connection with the owner and renters who will give permission to write on their property. 

As a developmental plan I do not believe the timeline would be an extremely long period. Realistically I would first obtain permission form the renters and owner of these garages. I would also get in contact with the city and community council members to see if I would need any permits to proceed with this project besides the owners permission. Once this is obtained I would like to go out and purchase the necessary materials and then put up the question. Hopefully within a week people would be inspired to answer the question and share their memories from their home countries.

Truly, the only costs of my exhibition will be obtaining the permits if they are needed and the materials needed for people to write their memories. That is one of the most beautiful things about my project, it is something that requires little money and yet it will bring together an entire community of people.