Pest Control

By Tania Franco Klein

In the 1990s French sociologist, Marc Augé coined the concept of the “non-place” to define spaces lacking in identity where communication occurred more artificially. They were spaces such as hotels, airports or restaurants that, due to their transitory or ephemeral state, could not be regarded as “places”. With this idea as the point of departure and using collective fear and hysteria in a satirical fashion, the author created a fictional representation of a city plagued by pigeon-repellent spikes. 

With this metaphor, Franco Klein takes us to the fractured relations of contemporaneity and the repulsion inspired by the media towards anything that seems different in terms of ideology, ethnic origin, religion or any other factor that might threaten our “peaceful” way of life. Pest Control sets out to reflect the loneliness and contradictions that make up the common backdrop to our times as part of the society of spectacle and successfully represents, through her visual approach, the surrealist relation (or lack of it) that governs individuals, public spaces and these “non-places”.

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Queue, Post office NW10 2PX

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Morning news, Channel 9

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Broadband, 49.22Mbps

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Parking Lot, 08014

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Customer Service, 10166

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Highway, Route 66

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Ferry, 40.675678, -74.041334

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