MaSAT – I notice the brain of the crazy monkey making ice cubes with a flowing river… I notice how this dream is too real for me.
Madrid in early Spring is a beautiful place. However, on the morning of March 30th, a group of over 100 artists decided to do some Spring cleaning of their own around the cities bus shelters. It was a cleansing of the mind so to speak. Armed with nothing other than T wrenches and posters, the members of the MaSAT (Madrid Street Advertising Takeover) project replaced over 100 signs in less than an hour.
The MaSAT project is the third a series of civil disobedience projects inspired by the vision of the Public AdCampaign, a group whose mission is to take back the visual space
that belongs to communities from the hands of outdoor advertising. The group sent an “open call to a list of artists, sociologists, teachers, lawyers, gallerists, bloggers, and other individuals who think deeply about what it means to have an open public environment.” They sent their submission
s in several languages with the rule that they must be anonymous and not affiliate the submission with any logo, or website [see MaSAT about page].
The Public AdCampaign has led street advertising takeovers in New York, Toronto and Madrid. They accept proposals for new projects and offer start up funds for those that engage a wide public audience while critically discussing issues surrounding outdoor advertising.
(Thanks to Paz Alejandra Melendez-Canales for translating the Spanish)
