I am suddenly awoken by a rattling sound. Rather sleepily I look at my watch and see that it´s midnight. When I look through the window I see two people standing on a platform below the billboard. One of them is lowering a rope down to a third person standing on the ground. He attaches a bucket and a broom-like object to the rope and they are quickly hoisted up to the platform. They remind me of the tools that the two men used the day before to put up the poster. These two men are just as quick and efficient and in less than ten minutes Betty Blue has been replaced with a stunning work of art. It looks rather like something that the talented artist Andy Warhol would have created in his New York City Studio The Factory during the 1960s and 70s. The scene that is taking place outside my window is almost surreal.
I wake up early the next morning and set off to find somewhere to eat breakfast. Out on the street I see a motley group of people. Judging from their lively discussions and gestures it seems that the new work of art is the hot topic of conversation. I am curious and look for someone who can help me translate what they are saying. It turns out to be a few young artists that paint posters in their studios during the day and go out at night to put them up on the city´s billboards. The artist that created this particular piece calls himself Le garson billboard (BillboardBoy).
The event that I witnessed that night planted a little seed in me that has now, many years later, blossomed into an amazing picture product. The product is called BillboardBoy and enables you to change the pictures and messages to suit your home just as quickly, easily and creatively as the artist Le garson billboard changed the room for me that January night in Paris.