polis: a collective blog about cities worldwide

Free Repair

by Vivien Park



For two years, artist Roland Roos has been travelling around Europe and making repairs on displaced or damaged things in public spaces. These unsolicited repairs ranged from replacing small details to structural reconstruction. To cover the cost of materials and labor, Roos took before and after pictures (which he calls unicums) and sells the prints at the average cost of repair. A functional but poetic public art project, some of these unicums are quite beautiful as well. Free Repair officially ended in April 2010.

Credits: Image of unicums from RolandRoos.net.