I received an email yesterday from Scott Burnham, the curator for Droog Design's Urban Play, an international project that promotes creativity in the public domain. Stephan Sagmeister's typographic installation "obsessions make my life worse and my work better", made out of 250,000 Euro cent coins was removed overnight by the Amsterdam police. While it was anticipated that the installation would be interacted with and portions disturbed and removed over time, the full and swift removal of the installation was unexpected. The story behind the removal is even more unexpected (in Scott's words):
"It seems that the Amsterdam police were called by a resident of one of the overlooking buildings early Sunday morning to report that someone was "stealing an artwork". As the story goes, people were pocketing a few of the coins, which was also expected, but things got a bit out of hand when a resident saw this happening. So the police responded, and, in a rather bizarre instance of police efficiency, they proceeded to "secure" the artwork, by sweeping up the entire installation."
It's a shame that the piece met its end this way.
All photos via Anjens.
That such a shame...it was a really stunning installation. I would love to have something like that on my wall had I the space for anything more than the first letter or two!
ReplyDeleteOh man, it was good while it lasted!
ReplyDeletehttp://sarahheartsdesign.blogspot.com/
...well, if the police would have left it alone there would have been less media attention to the whole thing :P
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand I would have loved to see the "thieves" scratching off the blue paint from each cent and then carrying the coins to the bank. 1 Cent = 2.3 grammes. 50€ = 11.5 kg.
Probably the first time the kids would have worked for their money :) he he he