Critical vehicles

the long version

Krzysztof Wodiczko, one of the most original avant garde artists of our time, 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 have 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. Critical Vehicles is the first book in English to collect Wodiczko's own writings on his projects. Wodiczko 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 sophisticated political insight, he offers the artistic means to help heal the damages of uprootedness and other contemporary troubles.