Nonsense

Marseille, June 2020

The Covid-19 epidemic has produced mourning and suffering, and deep traces in our public spaces: health slogans, practical instructions, gel dispensers, masks of all kinds on faces and necks, terraces invading sidewalks and even streets. It also led, in France, to the longest electoral campaign in the history of the Republic, with more than three months between the two rounds of the municipal election. While the campaign was effectively suspended, near public buildings and in our squares, election signs remained standing, filled with faded or torn posters, covered with graffiti or discreet additions to the candidates’ portraits.
On this almost virgin ground due to the lack of campaigners, immaculate images appeared here and there, and soon everywhere. “A new man for France”, ” Now together let us act”, “Now let us regain confidence”, slogans in white letters taking up two thirds of the surface of the paper against a background of a beautiful uniform colour. Underneath is a familiar face, but much younger than the last time we saw him. The only thing missing now is the official song to take us back to the atmosphere of 1981.
Why reprint and broadcast these images? Are they copies of the time or a graphic reconstruction that suits the eye of the passers-by of 2020? No signature, no frame is provided to interpret this absurd, funny, ironic gesture. Denunciation of political lies, nostalgia for a bygone era, allusion to local news about false proxies? Or simply the observation that the world after will be a bad copy of the one before, like these posters?