57 / 2 - unfinished work

Took a Barbie doll from my sister, made a bathing suit and a towel out of textile and tried to place her underneath the palm trees near the building of the University in Bucharest, as if she were sunbathing. Because the place is always full of cops during the day, I went there during the evening, at around 22.00. While I was taking photos of the palm trees surrounded by small marble pebbles using the flash of my camera, I was spotted by the CCTV on the lamp posts. A policeman riding a motorcycle was announced via radio, came to the scene and took me to the side of the boulevard, where I was fined for jaywalking.



















My intention was to make an ironic comment on the palm trees planted in the center of the city, on which the local administration spent 25000 Euro. They are now replacing the clock which was responsible of the countdown for the entry of Romania in the European Union. This was recently moved to a less central area, at the crossroads of Marasesti and Dimitrie Cantemir boulevards. Once Romanians became Europeans officially, the object from public space which reminded passers-by of the stressful waiting period they lived before entering the EU (a stress staged by the same local administration through the use of the countdown system), is now replaced by an arrangement of plants that is at the same time frivolous and expensive.



















The palm trees will be taken out of the green space and transported to a greenhouse during the winter, as they are fragile plants. Most probably, during the cold season they will be replaced with fir trees. The local administration stated that the replacement of the clock was due to the fact that it no longer worked. At the time the above photo was taken, the clock was showing the right time, only the electronic display that counted back the days to Romania's entering the EU was no longer functional. It is more than probable that moving the clock to another location and replacing it with the palm trees cost more that repairing it.

Meanwhile, others have taken action against the same palm trees. It seems that they were not noticed by the police, and I congratulate them for it :)