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The ambulant yellow structures pictured are ubiquitous in the city, selling otwarzanki, Polish pretzels unique to the city of Krakow. Made during an isolated time spent living and working in Poland, my intervention in the city attempted to initiate a modest point of contact by addressing bodily needs and points of cultural similarity/ difference. I made a bricolage version of the Polish stall from a discarded bedframe, painted it green, and replaced the otwarzanki with a few hundred Irish scones, to be given away in the main city square.
Using tourist clichés as visual props, this work was an attempt to spark a social interaction and ‘cultural exchange’ (different to the tourist experience) on a micro level. Located in the main medieval square of the city, this was also the main tourist centre – hence the tourist snapshot quality the photographs took on. This activity prompted a number of conversations with other visitors, city dwellers and bread sellers, as well as people who wished to photograph me, thinking I was some kind of curious tourist attraction.
