Abbey Givertzman

Creating Home

I am working with ideas of public and private space, and specifically looking at how people without a home in Berlin build homes for themselves in public spaces; at the ways a provisional ownership of a certain stoop or corner is claimed and communicated. I am also looking at the influence capitalism and big furniture companies like Ikea have on the structuring of homeless people’s living spaces. What makes a space safe enough to rest? What are the social dynamics that go into taking ownership of space? Are there certain rules that people agree on?

Being homeless involves a nomadic way of life that reminds us of migration. Many people who are homeless are also migrants, and are forced onto the street.

My photographs do not want to expose the intimate spaces a person has claimed for themselves, yet want to expose the ways in which a public space transforms into a home. The tracings over my photographs and interior design pictures are to redirect the eye to the similarities that they share.

The project seeks to legitimize these homes that people have built for themselves outside of the law. It acknowledges how hard it is to have legal ownership and the tricky situations these people are put into.

Pictures, 2023