On three occasions since 2002, mainly (but not exclusively) in Paris, the Une Nuit (One Night) collective took over and covered several hundred advertising billboards with handmade 4 by 3 posters created in artists studios. This book provides a comprehensive record of these events. The photographic archives included in Une Nuit are the only remaining trace of these three largely decentralized and self-managed events. The collages of Une Nuit are a concretization in the public space of the atmosphere created over a period of time by spontaneous encounters of dozens of situationists. To the warlike logic of targeting and the impact of advertising campaigns, the collective responded with eccentricity, life and fun. At the outset, a first encounter at La Place sans Nom (the Nameless Place) located at the intersection of Oberkampf and Saint Maur streets served the purpose of a Forum. It was there, from April 2000 on, where with increasingly contrived chance, the first exchanges took place. It was there, as meetings became more and more regular, that the first steps of a growingly ambitious process were elaborated. At first, wildly cleared off by the actions of the internationale chantillonniste, a double panel adjacent to the Caf Charbon became a welcoming surface for a first cycle of collages baptized, Implosion/Explosion. The growing enthusiasm surrounding this unique window s capacity for visibility, made it obviously necessary for an action of greater scope and urgent enough to give rise to a first Nuit on may 24 2002, then a second on may 9 2003, and a third on May 20 2005.
