The news about the Cypriot bailout this weekend is just the latest development to shake up Europe. Last month, four artists in Spain installed a project to capture the atmosphere of a continent that’s been on edge for some time now. They sculpted hands out of gypsum to symbolize the crisis and installed dozens of them in the streets of Barcelona: One asks for money, one desperately seeks spare change from a payphone, another offers itself to ATM machine customers to literally hang themselves. Yes, as in suicide.
Obviously some black humor is involved, but the goal of the project is to make people ask questions, designer Pau Garcia Sanchez writes in an email to Quartz.
People in Barcelona have grown frustrated with their politicians. “There is an absolute lack of credibility,” Sanchez wrote.
The crisis has forced many young people to move to other countries in search of work, Sanchez said, including two of the group: Artists Octavi Serra and Mateu Targa have migrated to Mexico.
These photos depict some more of the installations in Barcelona (photos published under permission of Pau Garcia Sanchez):
