On Sign Out, Josef Schulz’ billboard project, and the magic of the highway:
Today, long after the appropriation of the land came to an end, there is a particular magic to the highways, the magic of departure, like one of these mirages which shimmer above the road surface in the summer. What has been lost is the notion that one’s own existence has to be wrested from a plot of land and is, as such, the result of years of hard work. The giant billboards alongside the road announce the great (not just American) short circuit. They scream at the non-searcher: The gates of paradise lie just beyond the next exit. Redemption is available for every traveller who has money.
If you read into it:
Sign Out means, to remove oneself from a list, to log off from a system, to stop participating.
Along the American highway, the sign stands alone.
