Penny Pinchers

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We all love the police, that “protect and serve” thing really sums them up. Well, in Amsterdam they’ve knocked up their efficiency to another whole level by “securing” one of the instillations from the Urban Play festival. Curator, Scott Burnham, writes about getting up the very next day after the launch party for Urban Play to go and check out what had been happening over night. From our understanding the entire festival is about making the streets interactive and alive with art that could be altered by any passers by.
 
Stefan Sagmeister (considered a design god by some) was commissioned to create a piece for Urban Play constructed out of 250,000 Euro cent coins. People worked for an entire week preparing and putting the piece together and by all means, it was expected that there would be some “ebb and flow” to take place with this piece, sort of like the system at Canadian checkouts: “take a penny, leave a penny”.
 
 
 
But in the space of one night, the entire piece was removed!
 
It turned out that the Amsterdam police were called by a resident of one of the overlooking buildings early that morning to report that someone was “stealing an artwork”. The police response was to efficiently secure the artwork by sweeping up and scooping the coins into sacks.
 
Follow the threads from Burnham’s page.