The man is urinating. You may cross the street now.

Five years ago, at roughly 50 crosswalks throughout Prague, standard figurines of people crossing and not crossing the street were replaced by icons such as these:

Artwork by Ztohoven, taken from this story

The artist, David Hons (better known by his pseudonym, Roman Týc), was told to pay 80,000 Czech crowns in damages to replace the lights and 60,000 crowns as a fine. He paid the former and refuses to pay the latter, the equivalent of about $3,200 USD. As a result, he faces jail time and is scheduled to be sentenced today. [UPDATE: He got one month in jail.]


Týc is part of an artist group known as Ztohoven, which is notorious for, among other things, creating the illusion of a nuclear explosion in the Czech countryside in the summer of 2007:

On Media Reality / O mediální realitě from sgnlr on Vimeo.


He has also created a series of artwork using the ashes of dead people. Anyway, it all seems in good fun, so here's hoping that if Týc goes to jail for refusing to pay the fine for his crosswalk stunt, it is only a light sentence.