Video workshop, TV-production and TV broadcast with artist Peter
Callesen and users of ‘The House of the Homeless’ Mia S. Mortensen,
Steen Flemming Hansen and Michael J. Christensen.
Part of ‘NB – Lad os mødes’ curated by H. Øllegaard and B. Nørggard
2002-2003

The video workshop project uses the idea of “turning the camera around” so that the homeless actively form the perception of reality. Through generating ideas and making a TV-production they can act as subjects and active political operators, and point at problems they find relevant.

Together with three users of the House of the Homeless we made a TV programme that was broadcasted on KanalKøbenhavn/NTV. The theme was chosen collaboratively and was about the many empty offices in Copenhagen that exists side by side with homeless! We (fictively) squatted an attractive empty office building in the harbour of Copenhagen. Here we stayed for 24 hours to record a rapportage about the issue. Afterwards we interviewed responsible politicians and a real estate analyst. The focus is on the way our society prioritises and how choices that is beneficial in one context increases homelessness.

The end result was a docu-fiction that used the narrative of the squatting inserted with interviews to set the situation in perspective.

The artists Peter Callesen and Kenneth A. Balfelt participate in the project on equal terms with Mia S. Mortensen, Steen Flemming Hansen and Michael J. Christensen, all users of “The House of The Homeless”.

Peter and I set up the following conditions for our work with the homeless:

• It is the conditions of the homeless that dictates when we meet
• We insist on them being active subjects
• We are not here to discuss problems but to make a project
• We all have the same say in the project
• It is a common project

Through the terms we layed out and the process we created we managed to get a very good process going, although it took 9 months instead of the expected 1-2 months.

A very positive outcome of the project was that the social worker at ‘The House of The Homeless’ took on the process we created as a model for working with the self-esteem of the homeless.

Kenneth A. Balfelt
www.a-r-d.org