It’s a Mystery
Wednesday, 24th October 2007 by James Turnbull
There's a neat question mark, about 11m tall, drawn on the ground of a construction site in the city of Rennes, France.
Of course, the question about this question is: why is it there?
The "?" appears to be made out of grass, perhaps by removing the turf around it. However, in this photo of the construction site there is curved paving to the bottom left which could correspond to the area of the question mark.
I also found these pictures which might be of the same area, but they don't provide many additional clues.
So, I'm turning it over to you, our sleuthing readers, to solve this mystery! Any ideas?
Thanks to Julien Balas
How did you find the ground level images?!
Sorry Ben, I can’t tell you that – it’s our trade secret! 😉
The first image was geo-tagged in Panoramio, then I Googled the surrounding street names and eventually found the other page of images.
they have made it for let us ask ourself why they have made it.. simple! not?
Perhaps it is a tribute to Question Mark of ? and the Mysterians. 🙂
The curved items are pre-cast spiral staircases
Yes, that’s likely the question mark in the ground level photo; the bushes directly “above” the question mark are literally in the same shape in both photos.
Hello !
Sorry for my poor english, I hope you’ll understand… 😉
This question-mark is a real one, made in july 2006. It’s a creation of Estelle Sämson and Erik de Roost, members of the french artists group “Les ateliers du vent”. They used to organize a party each summer, right in this place, next to the river. They have been expropriated by the City, and a property developper bought the site. Before leaving, Les Ateliers du vent have organized different happenings to ask the question of the nature in the city. Right on the question mark – made of barley, not of grass – there is now a building.
Mystery solved – thanks Matarjeu!
I found mention of the party on the artists’ website via the Google translation, which talks about “a question mark where giant grew from barley”.
Hi, it’s indeed an artistic work – you can find a nice picture of the artwork at : http://www.lesateliersduvent.org/?fiche=118&id_media=3 Jean-Louis