Technical sheet
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- 2018 (first round) - 2023 (second round)
- intervention
- Marge
- layout
- 8 posters, 8 layouts, 1 message (first round) / 2 stickers, 2 posters, 1 message, identical layout, two colors (second round).
- context
- installation for exhibition BUITEN, SANTO in collaboration with S.M.A.K. Gent, 2018
Aanplakbiljet
placard(s) (multi) piece of paper with information for everyone stuck on a board or wall
installation in the context of exhibition BUITEN, SANTO and S.M.A.K. Ghent, 2018
Everywhere in the city you have large blank billboards with the legal possibility to make messages visible to everyone. These signs, however, are mainly used for profitable events, rarely for 'matters of general interest' in the broad sense. The placard of ‘MARGE’ contains a simple open message of general interest, but without a very clear purpose.
In times of non-stop scandals, climate changes, crises, war, elections ... alarming messages from all sides seem to suggest at the same time that something needs to change urgently. The messages often contradict each other substantively, according to the agenda of the person or institution that speaks, but the main idea seems the same; the world we live in now is about to collapse, we are not doing well, it can only be done better.
The MARGE placard removes these messages from their context; only the almost panicky undertone is retained. Through the confrontation with the placard in the public space and its clarity and abstraction, the exact interpretation of the message remains open. The reader may feel personally addressed and urged to do something. Or the reader writes the message to an organization he does not support. It is not clear who is speaking, or why they are speaking.
One could consider the note as an indictment against the general tone of messages in the city, or a parody, or a search for the archetype of modern reporting.
The second round: the placard where it belongs
The second round transfers the authorship. The stickers and posters are distributed and can be put up (on legal places, of course): your bike, laptop, behind your window. As ‘billposter’ you might have a specific complaint. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s more an expression of a more general trend. It’s your story. The reader sees your complaint, the expression of wishes, without knowing the story. A reader might think something totally different when seeing the complaint. It doesn’t matter. Something is wrong. And we have to do something about that.
