The first time I saw them was in 2010, attached to the metal railings of the Pont des Arts in Paris. They looked mysterious and out of context. Over the metal surface of their body one could see handwritten names. Names of lovers over padlocks attached to a bridge. What a curious thing I thought. As we walked the bridge over the Seine, my friend Carolina, who has a romantic soul, told us that the padlocks were left there by couples as sign of their love. I was surprised and fascinated by such urban intervention. Melina, my girlfriend, said that the practice of attaching padlocks to the railings was a recent phenomenon. As we crossed the bridge I kept looking at the different kinds of padlocks, shapes, brands, typographies, and colors, and realized that together they represented a kind of public and collaborative sculpture. A very participatory piece of street art.
At the end of that night when we returned home, I gave Melina a little padlock I used for my tote bag and wrote our initials on it. I told her we could participate in the sculpture but since I had to come back to America, she had to add the padlock by herself. Some months later she did it. Bellow is one of the pictures she sent me.
As the image shows, there were not that many padlocks attached to the Pont des Arts railings in February 2011. However, one year later, the number of locks has increased over that bridge as one can see in this photograph:
Actually, last summer we discovered that the romantic padlocks are not only invading the Pont des Arts, but also other bridges in Paris such as Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor and the Pont de l’Archevêché. From the distance, the railings of these bridges looked like having a curtain, a sort of cloth, as if an ivy had colonized them.
That summer we also learned, while visiting Prague, that the padlocks are not unique to Paris. While walking on the Charles Bridge over the Vltava River, we spotted love locks attached to the decorative railings.
It turns out that the romantic padlocks participatory sculptures are becoming a sort of global phenomenon. Cities around the world are being invaded by these signs and gestures of love. Love padlocks. Love locks. Wish locks. Locks are invading not only bridges but also other public structures such as fences and gates. A comprehensive Wikipedia entry has a list of locations all over the five continents where padlocks are thriving. From Paris to Cracovia to Rome, padlocks are spreading invading the bridges of many cities around the world.
For instance, in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, there is one of the first bridges (“bridge of love”- Most ljubavi ) who got covered by the padlock invasion.
Another early invasion occurred in Rome, over Tiber River, on the Ponte Milvio:
In Berlin, the padlocks seem to be arriving recently to few bridges over the Spree,
I found many beautiful photographs in Flickr that document the padlock phenomenon. There are a couple of groups where people is contributing with their pictures. In order to understand the scale of the global invasion I found very useful to look at this map where one can see the origin of the several photographs that belong to the Love Padlocks/Lucchetti d’amore Flickr group.
What is actually most interesting about the romantic padlock invasion is the participatory aspect of it. Contributions are voluntary and easy. The only materials people need to participate are a padlock and a sharpie. There is no central coordination. Each couple can add to the public sculptures without any kind of pressure. The rules are simple. Locks on rails, locks on locks, until they form a lock-curtain. An ivy of locks. I am curious to see and track how this global phenomenon keeps spreading. Which city is next?
Update (2015) : This week, and after several policy and urban planning discussions, the locks from Pont d’Arts in Paris have been removed.
