Anti-homeless

To the beginning, I have to comment on my experience in the city with public blank. In my city, since I was a child, I have interpreted the bank as a place to sit with my friends, to hang out and have a snack. In my adolescence, it was still a meeting place, both in the afternoon and in the evening after dinner. The memories I have of this public space are good.

The story changes when I arrive in Valencia. My vision of the banks becomes sad, even negative. I see the benches as a refuge for homeless people. A makeshift bed for the less fortunate. A lot of people sleeping there. It becomes more negative with the “anti-homeless architecture”, where start installing dividers on the benches, to prevent that people sleeping there; to make uncomfortable a place of “rest”. Comfort ceases to matter when rest is for people who aren’t socially accepted for their socioeconomic situation.

I’m interested in giving visibility to this problem. I want to show that banks are on the few alternative for homeless people. The fact that they are denied that minimally more dignified rest than the floor. To raise awareness that, even if you don’t see so many people sleeping there, the problem still exists.

To intervene, I made a photomontage, adding a pillow to a bench. The bank is strategically placed in front of a school. This location would have as a consequence that children ask their parents the reason for this object, a fact that would have to make the adults reflect to explain to their children that there are people who need to sleep there, and that nowadays they can’t even sleep there. The photograph is in black and white to emphasize the drama of this sad situation.