Forgotten Classical Paintings Taken From Museums To The Streets

Not all people in paintings are famous, and not all of those paintings receive attention. That's why filmmaker Julien de Casabianca is bringing those paintings to the streets with the Outings Project. It consists of taking your cellphone to a museum, finding a painting of an unknown person tucked into some dark corner, taking a picture of him or her, and then pasting it on a wall in a street (using clear wallpaper glue, to be non-destructive). And not just any wall – De Casabianca advises using crumbling and decaying walls, since they're pretty, and and property owners who want clean walls aren’t affected.

De Casabianca got the idea for the project while he was visiting the Louvre. “I saw a young woman in an abandoned painting in the corner, she was bored,” Casabianca told Slate. “I had a ‘Prince Charming’ impulse: I wanted to free her from the castle to give her a second life.” That's how the “world participative project” (that's how Outings is described on the project website) was born. There is also a limited amount of grants for people who want to print out the pictures. Once the deed is done, the participant needs to take a photo of the work and send it to the project website. There, the picture will be displayed for all to see.

So what are you waiting for?

More info: outings-project.org | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Flickr (h/t: colossal, slate)