(...) these interventions (...) - in opposition to artworks in public spaces, such as monuments, equestrian statues, busts and fountains - take on the nature of ephemeral operations which stand outside of usual categories. The primary meaning of these public spaces can thus be derived from the artist's gesture, which attempts to fracture the boundaries that separate the work of art from the fullness of life around it.

Marion Hohlfeldt 1999

The anti-"art" Situationists, with their concept of détournement - swerving away from the norm, perverting the expected - were particularly striking for Gerz, just when Paris itself became a living poem of their posters, slogans and graffiti in May '68.

Sarah Wilson 2004