One of the enduring elements of the art car movement must surely be the real humor that embodies a lot of the best works. There is an aspect that the French refer to as “ludique”, meaning a certain light-hearted and easy-going humor that could be considered silly, but refuses to accept that there is anything wrong with a little bit of silliness every once in a while. In keeping with this bizarre, completely non-functional idea, one of the most recent pieces to catch the attention of the art car world is Costas Schuler’s “Mercedes Pens”.

As the name suggests, Schuler’s piece is a Mercedes-Benz car covered in – yes, you guessed it – pens. If you are asking “Why?” then you are missing the point. When it comes to art cars, “Why?” just is not a viable question. The question, more properly, must be “why not?” There may be no functional reason why you should cover a Mercedes car in pens to make a pun on the word “Benz”, but art cars don’t need to be functional, and even those that are tend to put the “fun” in “functional”.

Schuler himself says that the idea for Mercedes Pens came simply from the desire to create an art car using something we all use, and that he wanted to inspire others through art and comedy to pursue their dreams while keeping a lust for life, a sense of fun, and a creative tendency that would impress anyone. If anyone is wondering, by the way, Costas (who often goes by “the Pen Man”) used more than 6,000 pens.