Don’t Brand My Public Space

Please Don’t Brand My Public Space is a critical investigation of the visual strategies employed to identify and brand political spaces. Isn’t it about time to look at their often banal images as part of a crisis of political representation? In the context of a revival of xenophobic propaganda on the one hand and the degradation of places into pure marketing products on the other, it is possible to recognize an increasingly theatrical, unquestioned production of public signs and symbols. Contributions on the theme by political scientists, designers, and sociologists make reference to the three visual essays that are at the heart of the book: The Noticeable Absence of a Flag of the Earth by Ruedi Baur, Depictions of Federalism and Nationalism: Comparing Former Yugoslavia, Switzerland, and Belgium by Irena Bockaj, and
European Capitals in Competition by Maria Roskowska. The publication is released in collaboration with Civic City ( HEAD Geneve ) and the research program Ecrire la ville
( Ensadlab, Paris). AUTHOR: Born in Paris in 1956, he received a degree in graphic design. In 1989 in Paris and in 2002 in Zurich, respectively, he founded his two studios: integral ruedi baur et associes and integral ruedi baur zurich. Since April 2004 Ruedi Baur, as professor at the Hochschule fur Gestaltung und Kunst Zurich, has been in charge of Design2context, a recently founded institute for research on design. ILLUSTRTIONS: 500