Imagination Took Over (8 Photos)

A building unzips. A bridge becomes a box.

An enormous zipper peels back a facade in Milan, and a man squeezes into a cardboard box painted on a bridge in Bayreuth. The rest of these works treat ordinary places with the same freedom, from a single missing brick to a quay where a ghost climbs out of the canal.

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🧷 An Unzipped Building — By Alex Chinneck in Milan, Italy 🇮🇹

Alex Chinneck built a false facade at Via Tortona 31 that seems to unzip like a jacket for Milan Design Week in 2019. The curled corner makes the wall look soft.

💡 Artist Fact: In 2014, Chinneck built a house from 7,500 paraffin wax bricks on Southwark Street in London and let it slowly melt, under the title A Pound of Flesh for 50p.

🔗 Follow Alex Chinneck on Instagram

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📦 “The Box” — By ZABOU in Bayreuth, Germany 🇩🇪

The cardboard box is a bridge linking two buildings at the Liebesbier Urban Art Hotel in Bayreuth. ZABOU painted three of its sides, putting the man’s face and arms at the front, his feet at the back, and a taped seam underneath.

More: Clever Art by ZABOU (12 Photos)

🔗 Follow ZABOU on Instagram

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🌰 “Sobral, the Product of Its History” — By FATE in Igreja Nova do Sobral, Portugal 🇵🇹

A woman carries an enormous acorn topped by a tiny chapel, with the scene wrapping around the building’s corner on Rua Nossa Senhora do Ó. FATE’s mural connects the area’s cork oaks and local heritage with a younger generation carrying that history forward.

🔗 Follow FATE on Instagram

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🏠 A Room for Emile — By David Zinn

A missing brick becomes a tiny room, complete with a picture on the wall. David Zinn’s chalk character Emile waits inside while a thick cap of real snow rests just overhead.

💡 Nerd Fact: Zinn has been making art in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan, since 1987, and his street drawings are improvised on location using only chalk, charcoal and found objects.

More: David Zinn’s Hidden Chalk Art (12 Photos)

🔗 Visit David Zinn’s website

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🧜‍♀️ “Part of Your World” — By Herr Nilsson in Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪

This Ariel was made from trash recovered from Lake Mälaren by the cleanup group Rena Mälaren. Hoses become her hair, discarded computer fans form her eyes, and the familiar mermaid returns to the waterfront with a very different attitude.

More: Herr Nilsson’s Pop Culture Street Art (21 Photos)

🔗 Visit Herr Nilsson’s website · Cleanup project: Rena Mälaren

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🌊 An Underwater Wall — By Pablo Zabala in Salobreña, Spain 🇪🇸

Pablo Zabala brings a swimmer and a rocky seabed onto a tall wall on Plaza de la Guardia in Salobreña for Artepeazos. Broad blue and green brushstrokes let the street seem to continue beneath the water.

🔗 Follow Pablo Zabala on Instagram · Festival: Artepeazos

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😎 The Dude in Sand — By Damon Langlois in Port Aransas, Texas, USA 🇺🇸

Round sunglasses, a full beard and one hand behind his head: even carved from sand, The Dude looks completely at ease. Damon Langlois made this reclining figure for Texas SandFest in Port Aransas.

🔗 Follow Damon Langlois on Instagram

📷 Photo by Padre Island Madre

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🏮 “Black Ghost” — By Svajūnas Jurkus and Sergejus Plotnikovas in Klaipėda, Lithuania 🇱🇹

The hooded bronze figure pulls itself from the canal, one hand on the quay and the other holding a lantern. Svajūnas Jurkus and Sergejus Plotnikovas based the sculpture on a local ghost legend. It was unveiled in 2010 beside Klaipėda’s historic swing bridge, near the castle site at Žvejų gatvė 22.

💡 Legend Fact: According to the legend, a castle guard met a hooded figure by the docks in 1595. The figure asked whether the town had enough grain and timber, then warned that the stocks would soon run low.

🔗 Sculpture credits: Svajūnas Jurkus and Sergejus Plotnikovas