Participative Roundabout Painting

Hello everyone,

With our association, we create public and participatory artworks to raise awareness about art in public spaces. We recently carried out a colorful project in our town. There is a traversable roundabout made up of 1,380 paving stones. We invited residents of all ages to choose a paving stone and a color to associate with it, in order to create a giant, collective ground mural.

To create this artwork, we needed a drone to take an aerial photograph that allowed us to draw the design, a printed diagram of the roundabout, stickers, a booklet to record the participants' choices, temporary ground paint, not to mention the involvement of 1,380 people and the municipality’s permission to paint the roundabout!

We used a drone to photograph the roundabout. From this photo, we created a schematic drawing of each individual paving stone and numbered them from 1 to 1,380. We then displayed the diagram in a public space and invited passersby to take part in the artwork. Participants could choose from three colors. They selected their preferred paving stone and color by placing a sticker on it.

To invite as many people as possible to take part, we first displayed the diagram at the town's multimedia library to reach children and families. Then, we set up a booth at a summer yard sale to engage even more participants. Finally, we visited the local middle school to complete the diagram. Afterward, we had to transfer all the chosen colors onto a final plan in order to paint the roundabout.

The final step was to paint the roundabout, carefully respecting each participant's choice. First, we transferred every selected color onto the corresponding paving stone. Then, we painted the stones using natural, temporary, and biodegradable paint. The result was joyful and colorful, and everyone had the chance to admire this collective artwork!