Homeless Berlin consists of a set of transfigurative portraits of homeless men in Berlin. Besides a presentation in public space at Check-Point Charlie, 8 Portraits will be on display at Gallery Hilgemann (pigment on linen, 250x86cm). The gallery will also host a documentation room in which video interviews with the portrayed, as well as photos of their current homes will be displayed.

"My Name is Dieter Binder. I live at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin."

They live invisible under Bridges and in subway stations, built their Houses on clearways and Backyards - the homeless men of the cities. The artist Milovan Destil Markovic has visited interviewed and painted them - in Belgrade, Tokyo and Berlin.
Thus Markovic has created a set of impressive portraits that not only tell us about the individual path of life of the portrayed, but also about the social conditions of the society which they inhabit.. The fusion of both elements in one intense transfigurative portrait is the aim and art of Markovic. Be it in the ruins of Belgrade, under the bridges of Tokyo or on the backyards of Berlin - the locations and individual stories might differ - their presence in the social constitution of modern cities is the same nonetheless: they are invisible. Homeless don't play a role in the economics of society and therefore they are not represented. We don't face the images of the losers, though we are confronted with the multiple faces of the successful; smiling ubiquitously from billboards and banners, thus carrying the flag of the capitalist society. Yet 'the flag of permanent defeat', as Hemmingway put it, remains in ragged shadows.

Markovic now turns the tables with these politics of representation. His transfigurative portraits elevate men without social standing to icons, thus challenging the prototypes of our success-based society.
A single passage of the homeless' self told life story is selected for the painting. It includes information about the portrayer's personality, the conditions of his failure and the influences of the surrounding culture and society. Therefore the transfigurative portraits of Markovic not only reveal the person, but also refer to the society - which has always been a key-quality of portrait painting.
Affixed with pigment on linen, the sole text passage becomes a transfigurative portrait of the invisible people of modern cities. Presented on a huge (advertising) banner in the heart of the city at Checkpoint Charlie, the portrait tells us the story of a different life. By using the form of an advertising banner in public space, the portrait precisely questions the ruling mechanisms of representation in our society.

The Homeless Berlin project is realised and exhibited by Galerie Kai Hilgemann Berlin, managed by Berliner Kulturveranstaltungs GmbH and suported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin and mock-up contemporary Berlin.