Heidi Bergstrom
In 2005 I created an installation project entitled H3 Realty: Homeless Homes for the Homeless. It seeks to subvert the commercial-ness of home and homelessness of the real estate market and the hypocrisy of so-called public assets – real estate that is essentially publicly-owned, yet unattainable by the average person. Especially the homeless.
The questions arose: is it possible to transform a Real Estate Agency’s primary revenue functions into social benefits? Can art and web technology unite in this quest?
This is the simple yet inherent problematic for H3 Realty. The Agency's core marketing channel would be a web site highlighting central public properties as potential locations. Whenever possible the real-world “office” would emerge as an installation hosted by a gallery, thereby making the impossible possible, the virtual into reality. These locations (both virtual offerings and real-world installations) are multi layered critiques of public and corporate life and the meaning of the public purse, public opinion, public will and of course, public responsibility. The site invites us to take back what is publicly owned by everyone.
This work was created in a spirit of solidarity with homeless people and the struggle for basic human rights. Over 200 homeless street people visited me during the installation. We shared coffee, stories, and built new listings, or improved the ones online already.
