Bydgoszcz, Poland, 2014

I went to Bydgoszczy to talk with homeless people about the dirtiest places in their city (Bydgoszcz, the polish town with above 350 thousand inhabitants). When they wanted some money I offered them a trade: purchase something they think it’s the dirtiest object they have, of course for their various reasons. Mostly I wanted to date with them on the next day for giving them a time to think, both the place and the object for sale.
My interest of homeless people stems from a desire to contact and act with social groups called as social parasites. This interest is guided too by the desire of bringing problems of marginalized and excluded communities closer to a wider audience, and if it’s possible try to solve those problems by some kind of art projects. I’m treating an art as a bridge for our contact and I set my ambitions on balancing between being a parasite for the art world and a host for people in a hard living conditions.

All that was under an invitation from Gallery Bwa Bydgoszcz to participate in a polish-icelandic event called “Wash” which the final was held at September 11-14, 2014.

Objects which I bought from homeless. Every object has own story, meet for a few days in different places, sometimes reluctance to enter into a different interaction than they assume (getting money by begging). Although it was about the dirtiest thing a lot of those items were selected by utility, I often heard something like “it will be useful for you”.
Homeless didn’t come for almost all appointments but I met them later in other places. Some people gave me nothing, some weren’t able to give me anything, maybe they weren’t flexible enough or just not able to think more abstractly or just give me anything. Only certain people could dig up something out of their pocket or jacket and give it to me as the dirtiest what they have.
Some people after three days of meetings and similar conversations about this thing to give me were just ashamed of that they still didn’t have anything for me. Some people started even be mad at me that I still want to talk with them while they are simply at work.