Cleaning Agency

The exhibition in Sofia is a sort of retrospective, but we are showing also entirely new work from just this month! One example is the intervention Duvarmuseum Vol. 3: “Stolipinovo Cleaning Agency”. Can you guess what is it about?

And here is the answer to the orange puzzle from two weeks ago: an attempt to bring recognition to the lads that collect everyone’s household bins for a 0,50 lv fee. They cover the entire district, yet for an outsider are very difficult to locate, always on the move. For a few weeks of frequent visits, I got to talk to four of them and supply seven with personalised (un)official work clothes (for some i managed to meet only their parents).

It was a great joy! And a bit of complaining that the letters were not all capitals. 😉

Household waste in Stolipinovo and in other dense segregated neighbourhoods in Bulgaria is a burning issue for both inhabitants and the general public, as media depict those communities as inherently “filthy” and undeserving of the services they receive. In fact, municipal services in those neighbourhoods are meagre and communities have often self-organised to resolve the issues they face on a daily basis.
The municipality have placed only a few sites for garbage bins in a district with over 40,000. This is when the community’s very own Stolipinovo Cleaning Agency comes to the rescue! These lads make rounds every day throughout the district collecting the household waste, and delivering it to distant trash sites. This is how the community maintains its own communal service – a household pays these workers around 25euro cents per visit.

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