The city of Bordeaux, France, is considered by many to be the world capital of wine. In addition to producing some world famous wines, it is also an international tourist destination. In August 2021, many social media users saw what appeared to be the city's latest attraction: a wine bottle-shaped train:
While Bordeaux is certainly known for its Bordeaux, the above-displayed video does not show a real train running through the city. This is a digital piece of artwork by Ian Padgham.
Padgham's video was originally shared in July 2021, a few days before a Bordeaux festival, which left some people wondering if they would really have a chance to ride in a bottle-shaped train. The city's transit officials had to regretfully inform the internet that this wine bottle train was not real. "Non, il n'y a pas de tram-bouteille qui circule à Bordeaux," they wrote. The English translation: "No, there is no bottle-tram running in Bordeaux."
Padgham, who is based in France, has created a number of similar artworks. So, before anyone asks, no, you can't ride a baguette bus:
And no, you can't ride in a pack of fries to get around the city:
Padgham makes stop motion and 3D animated videos for his production company, Origiful. His work has gone viral on several occasions. In 2013, the San Francisco Gate wrote an article about Padgham after his work started to gain traction on the micro-video platform Vine:
Padgham left (his job) to make Vines - the six-second looping videos that he helped Twitter introduce to the world in 2013 through a video-sharing app. While art critics may sniff at a six-second limit to creativity, Padgham used the medium to blend stop-motion video, claymation, speed sketching, flip-book animation and a wry sense of humor, emerging as one of the earliest Vine artists.
There's his caffeine-starved Woodman artist's model crawling on the ground toward a miniature coffeepot. A staring contest at Twitter. Ian pushing Muni buses through the intersection outside his third-story window with his fingers.
Shot from handmade props in his Alamo Square apartment, his quirky Vines quickly drew more than 15,000 Twitter followers. Then Disney came calling. And Mercedes, and Xbox and Nokia.
You can see more of Padgham's work on Instagram, Twitter, or on the Origiful website.