The project was born as a result of the so called Warsaw reprivatisation scandal, and as a result of a reflection on the condition of Polish housing policy and how it actually influences the lives of people.

Initially, the idea was to organise a walk in the space of one of the tenement houses of the city district of Praga in Warsaw that had been subject to fraudulent reprivatisation. During the project, however, despite invitations extended by the actual tenants, the building was administratively excluded from any artistic endeavours. The voice of artists and tenants in the space under reprivatisation was recognised as dangerous. It turned out that the public space (common space) had been appropriated by private interests and legal chaos. In light of this situation, the artists decided to adopt a reversed strategy – instead of entering public space with art, they made the building of the theatre available for action by the tenants of the reprivatized buildings.  With this gesture, they have also given them full autonomy and freedom of speech. It is them who decide on the subjects they want to discuss and how to occupy the space they have been given.

The installation shall occupy a space which are not used for artistic projects – the foyer of the theatre. This choice is related to the state of suspension, and the interim and uncertain status which is a frequent experience not only in the context of the buildings and flats recovered and taken over by private owners, but also the housing situation in Poland today.

Housing anxiety does not, after all, refer only to the so called wild reprivatisation but is the common experience of subsequent generations of Poland after the transformation. Are we right in seeing as norm the high rents and the 30-year long mortgage loans as the only solutions to the problems in the housing sector? Is it really true that tenement issues are restricted to just a small group of the „demanders and parasites”?

Art and Society Festival Happy City.