”AS THE PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE PICTURES OF INDIVIDUALS ARE TAKEN WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION, I REVERSED THE ACT: I TOOK THE PICTURES OF INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT GOOGLE’S PERMISSION AND POSTED THEM ON PUBLIC WALLS. IN DOING SO, I HIGHLIGHT THE VIABILITY OF THIS SORT OF MEDIUM AS AN ARTISTIC MATERIAL READY TO COMMENT AND SHAKE OUR SOCIETY.“

Lauren McCarthy

© Movie and pictures by Lauren McCarthy

Photos of people found on Google Street View were printed and posted at the same physical locations where they were taken. The posters were printed in color, cut along the outline, and then affixed to the walls of public buildings at the precise spot where they appear in Google Street View. Street Ghosts reveals aesthetic and biopolitical aspects, as well as legal issues concerning privacy and copyright, which can be explored through the artist’s statement and theoretical considerations. The artwork re-contextualized readymade informational material, and reenacted a social conflict: ghostly human bodies appear as casualties of the info-war in the city, a transitory record of collateral damage from the battle between corporations, governments, civilians and algorithms over the control of public and private information.

The IKL invited Paolo Cirio to present the physical experience of what it means to have lost the right on your own image. The public encounters were already possible in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Denver, Buffalo, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Montreal, London, Lincoln, Berlin, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Paris, Namur, Toulouse, Lyon, Marseille, Barcelona, Bilbao, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Budapest, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney.

With the kind support of the City of Luxembourg and the Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte. A special thank to the owners of the facades, whogreed in participating.

© Pictures by Paolo Cirio