What’s next?

Marseille, April 2020.

The street was, of course, empty, confinement required. With the sun hitting it directly, the sign built on an railway company right-of-way was all the more visible with its white background. The huge letters and the two-colour scheme recall the subliminal advertisements of « They Live ». But instead of the slogans to the glory of capitalism, a question that stops us rather than guides our conduct.
As the hero of this magnificent John Carpenter film, our interpretation is temporarily suspended. Is it the collapse of the advertising market that led the company owning the billboard, “Future publicity”, to subtly recall the existence of this medium for future clients? Or, as the small visible folds would suggest, a hacking of the commercial space by decreasing activists? Does a political party thus intend to relaunch the municipal elections in anticipation of a hypothetical second round?
Everything is open, everything seems possible, that’s what this sign tells us. The next may be as it was before, but also as now, wave after wave, or as a never before dominated by the commons and sending advertising pollution back to a bygone past. It forces us to think about it at least for a moment, alone in this spatial and temporal void, before quickly returning home, meditation not being a derogatory reason to exit your house.