“Barter and flea market for the curious.

Open the safe door.

Take a look

Deposit, Take, Exchange!”

Tuco Wallach shares his latest interactive project today to see what people will use the deposit box for in his social experiment. He says it wasn’t a solo endeavor, but rather a little group project with friends and family in his hometown of Besançon, France. Known for his animal headed figures (Manimals) perfectly placed and photographed in scenes throughout the city, the accompanying 8 minute video below also reveals his level of skill with the power saw in the home workshop.

Tuco Wallach. Besançon, France. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

For those with and affinity for power tools, the construction of the box is possibly riveting and seeing the painstaking hand cutting of his stencils reminds you of the time when stencil Street Artists didn’t skip that human step and instead sent their Illustrator files to the laser cutter via email and waited for the stencils to arrive in the mail.

With a hypnotic folky /electronic soundtrack, this is art painstakingly created at a slow pace in the controlled environment of a studio with studied attention to craftsmanship. The results are precise – edges of the miter-sawed figure are even finished with a black marker. This level of preparation and materials and deep-bench electric tool supply called upon is probably comical to those who cut out their cardboard stencils on the linoleum floor of the tiny kitchen of their cramped apartment and practice the hit-and-run technique of aerosol spraying in a stolen moment directly on a street wall.

Tuco Wallach. Besançon, France. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

It won’t surprise you to discover that there are actually a number of Street Artists who can also put a new bathroom or kitchen cabinetry or a breakfast nook in your home, and actually do that kind of work as a profession.

But it’s the quick shot of Jack Nicholson’s crazed face thrust through the hole of a smashed door that captures your eye as a worn copy of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is the initial donation to the book swap box. Is this a specific choice for a conversation-starter, an incidental outlier, or a clue? What does the fox say?

Tuco Wallach. Besançon, France. (photo © Tuco Wallach)