Press Release: November 9th 2008
SAS invites homeless man on journey
The foundation projekt UDENFOR is putting homelessness into focus in co-operation with the artist and provocateur Jens Galschiøt.
As the beginning of a pan-European debate regarding the conditions for the homeless people in Europe, Galschiøt has made a live-size bronze sculpture portraying a homeless man. November 12th 2008 SAS will fly the homeless man to London in First Class.
This homeless man is the first in a line of 30 different sculptures, which form the exhibition Welcome HomeLess. In the following two years, the sculptures will all tour through Europe in order to put local, national and international focus on homelessness in all its varieties, and to collect money to help the homeless.
Committed organizers
“I create these 30 sculptures because the biggest threat in a society is not the foreigners, but the way we welcome the foreigners,” says Jens Galschiøt and Ninna Hoegh continuous; “By using the sculptures made by Jens Galschiøt, we will make an alternative debate concerning the rights of the homeless people.”
The journey to London is the very first part of the launch of Welcome HomeLess, which will take place at the FEANTSA annual conference regarding homelessness. The two main goals with the exhibition are fundraising and creating debate, but first of all it is necessary to find a range of European organizations that will help the exhibition in its journey across Europe.
“We support this project because it is a good and interesting initiative, which places an important problem into focus – a problem which is also visible in Denmark. So I am very pleased that SAS has the opportunity to help spread the message”, says CEO in SAS Denmark, Susanne Larsen.
The homeless man will check in at Copenhagen Airport at 6.30 am and flies to London at 7.30 am with the SAS SK501. It will be possible to take pictures of the sculpture, when it is seated in the plane. It is also possible to hear more about Welcome HomeLess and interview the principal organizers.
For more information regarding Welcome HomeLess and the event in Copenhagen Airport, please contact:
Mikkel Thrane, publicity manager in SAS, phone: +45 41 32 32 37
Ninna Hoegh, Head of Secretariat, projekt UDENFOR, phone: +45 61 62 04 63
Jens Galschiøt, sculptor and provocateur, phone: +45 66 18 40 58
For a broader selection of pictures, please visit: http://www.aidoh.dk/HomeLess
Welcome HomeLess is sponsored by SAS, Wonderful Copenhagen and is further supported by TBWA\ and the European umbrella-organization FEANTSA.