My proposal is about “homeless”, and today I would like to talk about why I want to do curatorial work in this direction.

During the Christmas holidays three of my friends and I were traveling to Istanbul and one night one of my friends had a sudden high fever and we went looking for a pharmacy, we searched for a long time but we couldn’t find one so we asked a passerby for directions. We met a man from Syria who was walking with his daughter on his shoulder, then the man took us to a shop to buy medicine, on the way to the shop we had a conversation, we learnt that the father and daughter were from Syria and had fled to Turkey because of the war, the man’s name was Sheron and his daughter’s name was Tina. we told him that we were from China, and he told us that he really wished to live like us, without the war and without the fighting. We said we were from China, and he said he would like to live a life like ours, where there is no war, no smoke, only peace and happiness. My friend then asked where Tina’s mum was, the man didn’t say anything, he just made a gesture: the gesture of putting a white cloth over a person’s body after death, and we understood everything. The man also showed us his wounds, which he said were from the police in Istanbul. When we walked to the shop, my friend bought two bags of chocolates and gave them to the little girl, but to our surprise, the man refused to accept our kindness, saying “we’re friends!” We observed that the owner of the shop treated the refugees very badly, very differently from the way he treated us. When we parted the man said he was too cold and could he ask my friend for a pair of trousers, after getting the trousers a tall man cried. When we parted downstairs in our hotel, he asked us how much it cost for one night in this hotel, and he said in rusty English: You have money, you can live in this hotel. no money, me and Tina sleep on the street.

(Our photo with father and daughter, I didn’t make it into the picture as I wasn’t wearing any make-up at the time, which is a shame now that I think about it)

I hope more people can pay attention to the situation of homeless, and more people can give some love and care to homeless. We can’t make up for what we lost because of the war, but we can give them a piece of clothing in the cold winter.

HOMELESS / Ziyi Chen / Curating (2023-2024)[SEM2] by is licensed under a