Ślimak (snail in Polish) is a project based on the life story of an 88-year-old (in 2018) homeless man, Miroslaw Cegielski, from Katowice, Poland.

Mirek is a loner who fell in love with motorcycles and cars at a young age. He spent most of his life as a driving instructor, private driver or bus driver. When he was left without a place to live in his old age, he started using abandoned cars as temporary homes. Since Mirek has a need to collect discarded but still useful objects, his shelters quickly became vehicles covered in stuff. Although Mirek organized and arranged found objects in chaotic installations in his own way, the citizens experienced them as disturbing, to which the city authorities reacted by removing vehicles and objects from the locations.

Based on his stories and material needs, we developed a plan for Mirek’s new refuge. The habit and actual desire to stay in cars determined the shape of the work itself. It was decided to convert a van for him to use permanently. The converted van was handed over to Mirek and the project was completed with a short film shot during the two months I spent with Miroslaw.

Although I got permission to install the van at a certain public location, after about 8 months the area was sold to a private owner. The new owner moved the van to the suburbs, which was useless for Mirek as he depended on the central part of the city where he could survive.

I hope Mirek is still around and sharing his lucidity with people.