Street vendors

Street vendors: Medellín, Tirana, Johannesburg, Yogyakarta is a video installation with four films about street vendors in four cities on different continents. We watch the vendors as they are being observed by Su Tomesen in their daily trials and tribulations. The micro entrepreneurs prove to be resourceful in their claim of the sidewalks and, while improvising, they manage to generate their income. Tomesen portrays them while revealing the beauty of unintentional compositions, colours, forms and repetitive qualities. By this, the four films remind of installation art and performances.

The four-channel installation is a loop: the four films of 30 minutes each start and end at roughly the same hour of a day, and play simultaneously in one space. The daily, sometimes wonderful activities are displayed without any voice-over, dialogue or explanation. In this way the viewer can plunge into the four days on different continents. Watching the four films together reveals global similarities of street vendors at different continents: the apparitions and disappearances of stalls, repairs and inventive solutions to everyday problems.