When traveling in Europe, I’m always drawn to the many city billboards. Especially if they are layered, ripped, half peeled off, turning the whole into an accidental collage worthy of Kurt Schwitters. Why don’t we have billboards like these in the United States? Yes, we have some. But nothing that even approaches the volume that one sees in Madrid, Zurich, Istanbul, Lisbon, Rome. I love that they continue to be an effective and sometimes beautiful means of communication in a world that’s gone personal-device-crazy. I remember throughout Italy the art-like death notices pasted up all around the different neighborhoods, alerting friends and extended family to a loved one’s passing. Galleries, concert halls, you name it, they’re all there with their visuals, waiting for you at the next corner, sometimes hanging around for years as more and more are pasted on top of them. Calendars, diaries in their own way.
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