The City is not a tree

In 1998 an advertisement was torn out of the daily newspaper Libération, then reprinted and posted in the streets of Paris. The City is not a tree is both a reflection on media reproduction and a form of social activism. In Pop Art painting, advertising images are described as natural phenomena and artists conceal their "ego" there behind a cold, realist attitude. While the green leaf with its tangle of veins calls to mind a thumbprint, the inscription "wanted" conveys the idea that someone or something is being sought. The leaf refers to that "ego" that has disappeared in Pop Art’s reproduction of mass representation, but also to the fact that strictly nothing natural exists in advertising language. The flyer with the phrase The City is not a tree, which accompanied the poster, was sent anonymously. It indicated that art could also exist outside museums and galleries, could be free from all connections, like a leaf fallen from a tree. This work was also a way of taking a position with respect to the media and the current events of the time (the war in Kosovo).
Franck Scurti

Photos and layout: Franck Scurti