There are two sides to every story

Stefan Jansson

Many cultural organizations in Stockholm uses public spaces for advertising purposes. Most of them do it legally on bulletin boards. Bigger corporations pay for their ads, and use big billboards to get noticed. Others, who can't afford to pay for it, advertise illegally, and anywhere they please. The question in Stockholm at the moment is, should theaters, nightclubs and other cultural organizers be able to pay for, and advertise on, the thousands of big and small electrical boxes around the Capital? I think not. If it was up to me all electrical boxes should be handed over to local schools, graffiti artists and painters. A school class could adopt a number of utility boxes in their area, and create their own artwork as a school project. My guess is that this would lead to less unwanted graffiti, especially if it became legal for street artists to create freely on the boxes. Like this cool stencil by KLAB that I noticed in Handen this afternoon. Young upcoming artists trying to make a name for them selves could also get involved. And who knows what this type of exposure could lead to for them. Sadly that is not how the city sees it. They have decided to let Fortum (the energy company), make money on selling the space on as many as 4000 boxes to advertisers.

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