Ugo

The interventions I did so far were all quite humble. So I thought it would be nice to create a private space to use within public space. The use of it should be private too. I made a bathroom. At first I wasn’t sure what the function of the bathroom should be, but it had to be used by someone. When I finished the bathroom, I thought of the movie ‘La riappropriazione della città’ (Reappropriating the city)–1977, where Ugo La Pietra tried to reclaim the public domain by a variety of interventions.

He opened his film with a close-up shot of him shaving. While zooming out, the shot reveals more of the context: he is out on the street. For me this little gesture of a private routine in public shows how clearly defined the use of public space is. It’s not that he shows indecent behavior, neither it’s a loud scream for attention. He’s just shaving. And yet, he claims public space in such a powerful way. I decided to make a tribute to La Pietra by shaving myself in my bathroom on the street. I expected a variety of responses. It may have been the location, or the fact that the camera was too close by, but the reactions I got varied from being unnoticed to being ignored. The main effect was me feeling uncomfortable while “claiming” the street.