Inflatable Cobblestones 1 Favorite 

On the 25th revolutionary 1st of May demonstration in Berlin-Kreuzberg, protesters were throwing huge inflatable cobblestones, made of silver-reflective foil and tape. The creative intervention was initiated by the former art-activist collective “eclectic electric collective” (e.e.c.) and was meant as a celebration of an object which is both a symbol and a material weapon of anti-authoritarian struggle everywhere. It also aimed to bring new strategies of tactical frivolity into the demonstration and to subvert the typical media representation of the protesters as "stone throwing trouble makers".

Inflatable Cobblestones are particularly usefull in subverting and ridiculising power. At the May Day demonstration in Berlin the riot police decided to get rid of the big inflatable cobblestone by piercing it. They had problems with the slippery surface of the material and the scene this created was hilarious: everyone saw how a highly armed squad of riot cops tried to destroy a balloon. In Spain, protesters documented how two policemen arrested an inflatable and squeezed the bulky thing in a van.

Posted by Artur van Balen Tools for Action on