There's an Italian joke which goes something like this:
Q - "In Milan it's a rule; in Rome it's a suggestion; in Naples it's a decoration. What is it?"
A - "A traffic light."
Visiting Brussels recently, it occurred to me that in the matter of pedestrian crossings there might well be a parallel joke in Belgium. The next thing which struck me was that, for an object of no functional purpose whatsoever, Brussels' pedestrian crossings exhibit a variety and a degree of creative effort I can't remember having seen anywhere else. Well, given that one definition of "work of art" is "something on which creative effort is expended, but which serves no utilitarian purpose", I did the only rational thing possible; I started to view them not as mundane pieces of street furniture, but as objects of aesthetic appreciation.
Lovely.
PS - it has since been pointed out to me that Brussels' pedestrian crossings do indeed have a functional purpose: they provide oncoming drivers with a more accurate aiming-off point.
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My rather superior, nose in the air definition of a civilised city is one where cars stop for pedestrians at Zebra crossings.
So far London and Dubrovnik qualify as the only civilised places I have visited.
Posted by Christopher Saul on September 02, 2008 at 05:35 PM GMT+00:00 #
In a recent episode of the popular motoring programme Top Gear, the presenters argued that a particular vehicle ranked as art because it was aesthetically stunning and completely useless. Perhaps these were the vehicles you saw in Brussels, failing to stop at the crossings either because the brakes didn't work or because the driver's view was impaired. Perhaps it is not the crossings themselves that are art, they are merely the elegantly painted frame for a sophisticated piece of performance art, featuring dead bureaucrats.
Posted by Richard Veryard on September 03, 2008 at 08:28 AM GMT+00:00 #