On the invitation from Academie voor Beeldvorming we did a residency at Stedelijk Museum ‘s-Hertogenbosch during the exhibition Reinventing Happiness / Bosch Geluk. Occasion for this work was the notion of growing poverty in the Netherlands in relation to food banks.
After conversations with clients from the food bank and professionals who work with people in poverty we noticed the contrast between people who live in poverty and the posh building of the museum. Whatever situation you’re in, people usually don’t talk about their financial situation. We trained attendants from the museum to start a performative conversation.
‘Good afternoon, how is your financial situation?‘ With this first question we changed the comfortable environment of the museum to something which clients from the food bank experience daily. ‘The action of visiting a food bank is full of shame and compulsion. This is how we approach visitors during this performance: we are happy you are here and want to know everything about you!’
The work ‘Bedankt voor uw deelname aan deze poging om de persoonlijke financiële omstandheden bespreekbaar te maken‘ existed of a few organised moments and an instruction for the attendants who could’ve been spotted by attentive visitors.
