CONCEPT
NEXT STOP LOVE BUS STOPS OF EMOTIONS All images courtesy of Francine Mabondo
Four fake dolly bus stops, placed in different street locations of Wandsworth, indicating human sentiments instead of geographical locations: Love, Dignity, Fear, Solitude. There is no bus coming but if there was one where would you like it take you? Next Stop Love is an exciting art project that happened during the Wandsworth Art Festival, in May 2011. In the street, the artist interact with people taking pictures and offering them to send a special postcard. This project was funded by Wandsworth Art council and the artwork was produced by Transport for London. Francine Mabondo is an MA student in Contemporary Art theory at Goldsmiths University. Next Stop Love is her first curatorial project. ‘”My ambition is to inject some ‘life’ into our daily life and routine in order to create some spaces of unlimited freedom. I am trying to find artistic ways to express and engage with a new public, perhaps one that is less predictable and less trained to the arts. I am fascinated with the collective space and in particular the bus stop where people do not have to perform and can rest from their life. By replacing geographical locations with human sentiments I hope that people can reflect on where their life is taking them. While working on the project, I researched whether any fakes bus stops had been created before. I found out that a German nursery home had created fake bus stops to prevent Alzheimer patients from wandering off. In reality, the patients escaped the nursery home and always gathered around the local bus stop where they could get back home. The nursery home came up with the idea of the fake bus stop to allow the patients to escape and to be found. This example shows very well how unconsciously we appropriate affectively certain objects of the community. This is the relationship I would like to explore.” Francine Mabondo For more informations : nextstoploveproject.blogspot.com
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