Armed with a pack of removable vinyl stickers, the French painter and sculptor prowls city streets at night looking for road signs to modify. Some local governments love him and collaborated with him for International Women’s Day signs. But his girlfriend has been in an Osaka prison for four months
Clet Abraham: Forbidden Games is at Artistik Rezo, Paris, until 10 July
Elena Berton
Thu 21 May 2015 11.51 EDT Last modified on Wed 19 Oct 2022 10.28 EDT
While not entirely legal, Clet Abraham’s whimsical alterations of Europe’s omnipresent road signs take care not to alter the main function of the originals.
Abraham usually works at night, when he is unlikely to get caught. He props his bicycle against the post, stands on it and applies the stickers he has made in advance. “It literally takes 10 seconds,” he says.
Other authorities have taken a dimmer view. Abraham is involved in an ongoing legal dispute with the Tuscan town of Pistoia, and his girlfriend was arrested in Osaka, Japan in January on charges of vandalism and breaking road-traffic laws.
His latest collaboration with local authorities was in Figline Valdarno, a Tuscan municipality with a female-majority council, to celebrate International Women’s Day.
