Forcing people to pay attention. Group Leader Interview #4
Earlier this year JOANA SOARES, ANA SANTOS and MAFALDA JACINTO organized a group action in Lisbon, Portugal. We interviewed them to gain insight into their process and experience. Interview was edited by author for grammar.
IOP: Was this your first foray into exhibiting your art on the street?
JS, AS, & MJ: Yes, it was.
What was the pasting experience like for your team?
It was a very fullfiling experience for each one of us. We felt we were doing something different and very bold, outrageous. For instance, all of the places we’ve decided to paste the posters were non-authorized places, so we pasted them during the night, and we always felt some kind of rush while pasting them; we were afraid to get caught. But that’s also what made the whole experience worthwhile. At the end we were just so proud for our endless effort, and its recognition.
What inspired you to get involved in the Inside Out Project?
One of our group members already knew about JR’s art, and she showed us a couple of videos of his art work. Upon seeing his speech at TED, the idea of following the Inside Out Project just seemed to pop up automatically. First we just wanted to work on a project to present to an university subject: we thought about presenting JR’s art to our class, not doing it ourselves. But the moment the idea came up, of pasting ourselves in photos on the streets, we got so excited. We couldn’t let the idea go. And that’s how we’ve managed to succeed.
How did you determine what statement to make?
We decided very easily what we wanted to paste in the streets. It had to be a common and actual social problem in Portugal. Therefore we thought about poverty, a very evident social reality in Lisbon. We have a lot of homeless people in Lisbon for several reasons: some because of drug addiction, others because of mental problems, others because of alcohol, others just because they want to live in the streets, and some because they really donʼt have anywhere else to go. Either way, our statement meant essentially that most people tend to ignore the presence of homeless people in the streets. They don’t look. They turn their faces away, “If I don’t see them, they don’t exist, so I don’t have to give them money.”
With their pictures in the streets people would be forced to see them and to see them just like a normal human being (to many of the homeless people, we asked them to make silly faces, just like JR did). Ultimately we wanted to call attention to the lack of social systems capable of dealing with poverty and homeless reality.
How did you recruit people to participate?
Before starting the field work we selected a zone of Lisbon where we could find a lot of homeless people and beggars in the street. Then we went there and gently talked to them and asked them to participate in our project. Surprisingly their feedback was really good and their collaboration was immediate. At first our photographer was afraid to come close enough to take the close-up photographs of their faces. But soon we realized that they easily joined the fun and grimaced for the camera.
Did it take a lot of time and effort to find the right walls? To get permission?
No, it didnʼt. Right away, we decided to use the walls of our faculty/university because our project was inserted in faculty work. Secondly, we thought of pasting in downtown Lisbon, on one of the busiest avenues of Lisbon, the “Avenida da Liberdade”. We didnʼt ask for permission to use any of the walls we used because we knew it would not be that easy and also because we wanted to catch people by surprise, even our teachers and colleagues.
What was the community’s reaction to your action?
In general the communityʼs reaction was good. Most people stopped walking and stared at the pictures at least for a few seconds. Some others didnʼt even look. But we think that it was a minority. We were attentive to the communityʼs reaction and recorded it with our camera lenses. This element was in fact a major part of our project/study. We went to the people that looked at our photos and asked them why they had looked, what they thought about those photos… Almost everyone said that those types of photographs – close-up faces in black and white, with a small inscription with homeless peopleʼs name and the number of years in the streets – forced people to look and pay attention to those social issues.
What conversation do you hope results from your group action?
The expectations concerning this action were partially fulfilled. As we didnʼt have much money we made artisanal glue and printed the low quality photos to be less expensive. There were some complications with some of the glue we made, which produced a slightly opaque layer over the photos. In spite of those problems we managed to achieve some positive results. Most people were gladly surprised with our initiative and supported us. We are happy if we can make people stop, look and think, even if only for a second. And we hope to gather a lot of seconds.
Our next step is to enlarge the action, which means to photograph more citizens, to paste the photos around more places and to touch increasingly more people.
Why do you feel art, and particularly the Inside Out Project, was the best way to express your statement?
We don’t think there are many alternatives to art when it comes to expressing ourselves.
To express something always demands a way through words (writing and acting, playing and singing) and images (drawing, painting, photographing, filming). Art is expression. And expression is, most of the times, art.
Curiously, in this case, it was art that drove us to expression – it was finding out about the Inside Out Project that we started thinking what we wanted to express. Of course we did not force ourselves to find a pity social theme in order to do a project. Both sides completed each other – the need of doing something that had a meaning (our statement) and the existence of an art project that would help us to make it real (the Inside Out Project).
Inside Out Project and JR’s work caught our attention specifically for the way he photographs and the scale and boldness of his exhibitions. It fascinates us how doing something we are passionate about can help – even if just a little – to change something.
What piece of advice would you give to someone else who wants to organize a group action?
1: Believe in your project, but be realistic.
We were always too dreamy about our project, but at the same time we were very very skeptical about it. We were dreaming big things, but never really believed in their achievement. Those extremes balance kind of blocked us from doing a better project, of taking better pictures, of talking to more people, of shooting everything, of preparing things more professionally.
2: Be passionate about what you’re doing.
Our group has very different people. We don’t listen to the same music, we don’t see the same films, we don’t read the same books, we don’t dress the same, we don’t like the same colors, we have different ideas about happiness and melancholy, about politics and football. But we really wanted to do this project, we were really passionate and totally devoted to its accomplishment. And that’s why it worked.
3: Nothing’s perfect.
We were a little disappointed with a part of our project – some posters were too dark and one of the buckets of glue didn’t work very well, so a part of our ideas turned a bit into failure. One thing we realised: it’s never going to be exactly as you were planning. We are pretty sure that next time we do something like this, things will work out much better.
Each time will be better and better. And mistakes will always develop (y)our creativity!
Do you think art can change the world? Why?
Some days, yes. Other days, no. It depends on the mood we wake up! But, mainly, it is just not a straight answer.
Nothing can really change the world like pim!-magic-change. Things have to be cultivated, have to grow, have to be taken care of, have to become strong, have to create roots, in order to make a change. And this, beyond the idea itself, depends on whoʼs responsible for planting it.
We think art as a way of expression is a good ground for planting seeds. When an idea transmitted through music, a film, a play, a book, a painting, a photograph, is strong enough it can start to grow and spread its seeds through the people who listen, read, feel, see it. That will allow some change to begin little by little, being it political, social or cultural.
We donʼt think art can radically change the world. But we know it can allow ideas to flow, questions to be asked, answers to be pursued. It makes us think. And just by thinking can we change the world.
JRʼs projects are making a lot of people think about common problems of the world. But itʼs not only art that is allowing JR to make his statement. Itʼs the way he uses art, getting it out of its usual places and bringing it to the world.
So we believe art can change the world, depending on the farmer, the seedʼs strength and the spot where it is planted. Which means: art can change the world if the artistʼs idea and the way he develops it are strong enough to make people think, question and act.
