HIGHER STANDARDS
where
Ljubljana, slovenia
when
2019
production
self-PRODUCTION
form
site-specific
civil activism
guerrilla installation
thanks
LUKA ERDANI
Veljko zejak
I installed traffic mirrors on corners of the bike path with restricted visibility, where collisions or close encounters between cyclists occur.
In fact, it was a functional, civil and not primarily artistic intervention.
The problem arose when photos of my intervention appeared in the municipal newspaper and online media, where the municipality highlighted the upgrading of a certain area. At the same time, I shared the video interventions on social networks. When it became clear that it was civil intervention they had praised, the municipality ordered the replacement of the mirrors, as those that had already been publicly promoted were not installed according to the appropriate standards. In a short time, the mirrors were replaced with mirrors of the same type, only placed slightly higher.
Although the intervention was supposed to make cycling safer, it actually turned out to be a demonstration of city government policy, which on the one hand makes a spectacle out of every crumb, and on the other hand shows the control of public space, in which organic, DIY contributions are no longer welcome. The modern city is subordinated to general urban standards.