ShshCh
Shoe shinning Charleroi Charleroi wants to pretty up: The old houses are getting renewed or destroyed, a new shopping mall is built. The city is preparing itself for a promising future and puts a huge effort into the change of it`s face. Thomas Geiger and Pierre Silverberg supported this effort by a simple but personal gesture: During the 3-day event of the Hotel Charleroi Winterschool they glamed up the inhabitants of Charleroi by shining their shoes. To look professional, so that people confide their shoes they built a shoeshiner seat and placed themselves during the 3 days in the city to clean shoes for free. They shared shifts so that the performance would be executed for the entire day. Currently, in times of recession, the profession of shoeshiners has a revival in Euope’s cities. For some it`s a chance to earn money but on the other hand this job offers something that do miss a lot of people: Social contact and time for exchange. And finally this profession shows an optimism that tells us, that even in hard times, it`s good to have shiny shoes.
ShshCh An action performed by Thomas Geiger and Pierre Silverberg for HOTEL Charleroi 2014