“Since we are doing this partly to improve the ambience of a place, the instalments are usually not placed in swanky neighbourhoods.The tiny shops are built mostly from scrap metal and other recycled products including wire, tin cans, matches and Italian stamps.Indeed, Banksy’s lesser-known cousins say that the first instalment was just done on a whim, “We, AnonyMouse, placed a small scene consisting of a nut shop, Noix de Vie, and an Italian bistro, Il Topolino, on the corner of Bergsgatan and Almbacksgatan in the town of Malmö of southern Sweden. In fact, we almost always try to keep them close to kindergartens, so that a lot of kids can see them,” they maintain.Since then, a number of mouse-sized installations have been in the works. “We had so much fun constructing this and we are already working on the next one. We’d like to focus on Malmö for the time being but are also open to the idea of venturing out to the world with our scenes,” they sign off.Of course, this plan to maintain the intrigue of anonymity meant that a lot of covert artwork operations followed. “It has less to do with mice per se, and more to do with the miniature fantasy world that we are trying to inculcate into the urban scenery. We were hoping that pedestrians walking by would find it charming,” explains AnonyMouse. Called AnonyMouse, the collective has gained international fame and has over 121,000 followers on Instagram. Still, many people have brought their pet mice and even hamsters to the shops,” they add. “We started with our first instalment in March, and have continued to work on it occasionally.
While the group laments the fact that their present installation in Malmö may have to be taken down because the harsh weather may cause too much wear and tear in the miniature interiors of the shop, they have big plans for the future. “We started in the hopes that at least some locals would notice it and that it would make them smile. Cartoons and Disney movies have perpetuated this idea and now, an anonymous collective of artists in Sweden is taking it a step further by creating mini-instalments of shops and restaurants along city streets for people to bring their pet mice. Almost immediately miniature things started to show up on the scene — club posters, cheeses, all kinds of plastic animals and much more. “We do not have any connection to the hacker group Anonymous, but there is an ever so slight kinship in the sense that what we do — attributing to the city without permit — could also be considered an act of defiance.Even as the mouse shops gained the attention of the European media, the group decided to strictly maintain their anonymity, their only calling card being the part V for Vendetta, part Mickey Mouse logo. There has been quite a lot of gluing, patination, hammering, painting and soldering going on,” recall one of the artists.
The scenes are therefore built in the artists’ studios and then moved to the streets early in the morning or in the middle of the Wholesale Smart Pet Fountain manufacturers night.. Though the artistes plan to stretch the boundaries of their imagination with each installation, they try to keep a few things constant. Also, AnonyMouse is quite a good name, so if we revealed who we are, then we’d have to change it,” the artists clarify, and are quick to add that, despite being great animal lovers, none of them have owned pets. “We usually scout the location beforehand, and things are made to a specific measure and then placed in a matter of minutes,” say the AnonyMouse artists. When they began however, they had no idea how popular the instalments would become. Some even bring their pet rodents there,” laugh the artists. But after less then 24 hours a newspaper had written an article about it and things snowballed from there. The people of Malmö seem to have taken it to their hearts. Indeed, the response that they received was completely unexpected.This collective of artists — AnonyMouse — based out of Mamlo, Sweden, has taken to creating mini installments of shops and restaurants for mice along the city’s streetsAs kids, we all imagine an alternative world inhabited perhaps by little Lilliputs, or talking animals.
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