Name: Gilles Perret
Title: Urban Cuddles or Can You See It Now Or Do I Need To Plant Some Poor People On It?
Material Requirements:
- Large quantities of industrial paint (blue, red, yellow, green, orange, purple and brown);
- 2 bags of pebbles (already in my possession);
- 13 rectangular metal bars of varying dimensions (already in my possession);
- 8 slate tiles measuring 160*20*3 cm (already in my possession);
- 3 bags of the Factory™ perpetual self-repairing concrete and a concrete mixer;
- An electro-thaumic generator of electro-magnetic current (already in my possession).
I have a model, an inspiration, call it what you will. The photo isn't great, but at the time I was in a rush and I didn't yet know what I was going to use it for. Anyway, here it is.
Abstract:
The work is an anti-homeless street furniture piece in the form of a rectangular flowerbed filled with pebbles and coloured metal bars running in all directions and at all heights, all held together by a concrete floor poured into a long rectangle with a slate border.
The metal bars are traversed by a magnetic field generated by the electro-thaumic generator integrated into the structure of the piece. I've adjusted the field so that it reacts to any human presence. Stimulating it will modify the structure, which will then be able to move towards groups of people, rather like a slug, contracting its base on the ground before relaxing it thanks to the movement of the bars induced by the generator's magnetic and thaumaturgic field.
The work should be placed in a town centre, shopping mall or any other place likely to be frequented by homeless people or any other type of population.
Intent:
I often wander around the city centre, and I sometimes come across homeless people, like just about everyone else. I haven't always been lucky, so I understand them and chat to them from time to time. And then the town council started installing urban furniture to make them leave.
I could have found it disgusting, but I found it magnificent. They made real artistic flowerbeds, sober but devilishly aesthetic. I came to see them quite often, more often than the homeless people who had to leave.
I ended up thinking: why don't people walk past these places and ignore them any more? Because they used to represent something that they preferred to ignore. I even think that some people are unlikely to realise what these flowerbeds are really for, because they've forgotten that the poor used to be there. They will, like me, be amused or amazed by this art in the city.
I found it disgusting. Not the flowerbeds, but the people. So I said to myself, even if they don't understand that these flowerbeds are taking the place of people who need them, I'm going to make one that takes theirs. A piece of furniture that follows them, because it's so magnificent compared to what was there before, and which disturbs them, disturbs them because they feel that this magnificent flowerbed constantly reminds them of something unpleasant that they'd rather forget.
Just like me.
Reply: Proposal — Urban Cuddles
Honestly man, it's great, I love your vision and all that. I'm going to give it a thumbs-up, but the guys I've been talking to about it are a bit hesitant because they feel your thing could get people hurt. But don't worry, you'll get all that, I promise.
It's all very cool, man.
The Evaluator