Windshield, episode 3

Issy-les-Moulineaux, june 2010.

Let’s come back to windshields. We saw recently that they provide a great exhibition space: a useful showcase where books can be exposed or message displayed without getting spoiled by rain or wind. But they also offer a surface. Somewhere to write directly on, or to leave notes on. It seems that, in that case, the car itself and its identity are at stake, modified or at least specified by a sole written word. But sometimes the transformation remains puzzling. A mutation obviously occurs, but it is hard to know which one exactly. What does this sticky note ‘POLICE’ make to the car? Handwritten and vulnerable. Is it a fake made in a rush by a driver who wants to avoid his car to be impounded? Is it a way for people in the neighborhood to denounce plain-clothes policemen? Can it really be a true police car? There is only one sure thing: a simple note is able to wobble our certainties and to turn a mundane car into a very mysterious one.