2003Superheroes
On a cold February day Marco Evaristti settled down in a latex-upholstered caravan fitted out by the furniture company Montana at Maria Kirkeplads in Copenhagen, a place where the hardest drug addicts come. Evaristti had a mixture of heroin, double cream, lacquer and insecticide in the caravan, which he asked the visiting drug addicts to paint with. The works that emerged from this are a type of co-production where Evaristti used the starting points of the drug addicts in developing the works.
The title, Super Heroes, refers to both the material hero-in and to the courageous addicts who came into the caravan and shared their stories with Evaristti. In return for the drawings the addicts were given a bag containing 1,000 Kroner for their next fix, a clean syringe, a silver spoon, cigarettes, a cap and a sweat shirt. The aim of the installation was to jog the then discussion about whether there was a need for a fix room in Vesterbro and to demonstrate our double standards. Evaristti would of course criminalise himself (by buying heroin) in order to illustrate that everybody accepts and turns a blind eye to the very same practices of drug addicts in Istedgade. Evaristti was then also faced with a number of challenges with making the artistic material (the heroin) tax deductable with the tax authorities.
