Critical Vehicles

Krzysztof Wodiczko, an avante-garde artist, is perhaps best known for the politically charged images he has projected onto buildings and monuments from New York to Warsaw - images of rockets projected onto triumphal arches, the image of handcuffed wrists projected onto a courthouse facade, images of homeless people in bandages and wheelchairs projected onto statues in a park from which they had been evicted. In projects such as the "Homeless Vehicle", which he designed through discussions with homeless people, Wodiczko has helped to make public space a place where marginalized people can speak, establish their presence and assert their rights. This book collects Wodiczko's own writings on his projects.

He has stated that his principal artistic concern is the displacement of traditional notions of community and identity in the face of rapidly expanding technologies and cultural miscommunication. In these writings he addresses such issues as urbanism, homelessness, immigration, alienation and the plight of refugees. Fusing wit and political insight, he offers the artistic means to help heal the damages of uprootedness and other contemporary troubles.