Situations Wanted – Applying for a Job in the Underground Economy

SITUATIONS WANTED - Applying for a Job in the Underground Economy

“Ragazza finlandese con un buona conoscenza
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‘SITUATIONS WANTED’ is an on-going art project, creative research and re-enactment around the subject of the black market economy, job hunting and how to succeed. It addresses issues of rising unemployment, social unrest and proposes real and playful strategies to overcome this situation. The Finnish artist Pii Anttila is using a project space as a job hunting office and agency, where visitors can find out, how the process is developing - will she find a job and of what kind?

Situations Wanted – Applying for a Job in the Underground Economy is a project about black market employment and how to find it using media. “I came up with the idea, when I was looking for a job in Ireland. I was living in Limerick and I put an ad in the local paper that Finnish girl is looking for a job... I got all kinds of dirty messages and black market people were constantly contacting me with jobs that I wasn’t looking for at all. All this happened again in Belfast, when I did it as an art project in PS² -project space in 2010. I was writing a blog about the process, job offers and people that visited the space. The blog continues whenever I am located in a new city. My overall plan is to make Situations Wanted a touring project, which reveals hidden power structures in the cities by making them visible to the public.”

Situations Wanted highlights the underground economy of different cities. It tells the story of hidden employment market and interacts with the people to make them aware about their local situations about the black market and people, who are prepared to exploit a foreign girl for money. Situations Wanted touches foreign jobseeker’s identity, viewes critically black market employment and encourage citizens towards a change.
The project promotes awareness of the phenomenon and its conventions. As a result of the Situations Wanted -media art project, emancipated counterforce is aroused, since power relations shift amongst the participants creating new information for the complex power net. Situations Wanted -project proves the significance to present public media art projects in the public and media space, in order to reveal and look into a
deeper level of the society’s structures.

Project in Rome on the 30th of November till 9th of December 2012

I am looking for a job at the same time in Rome than Celeste Prize 2012 exhibition is on. I will look for a job in the city during ten days by putting the advert into public newspapers and job websites in Rome. In addition, I will be couple of hours everyday
in the Centrale Montemartini standing in my ’job booth’ discussing with visitors about the employment situations and sharing stories of how to get a job as a foreigner. I also write a blog about what happens to me and what kind of jobs I have found. Situations Wanted will be at the same time in Muu Gallery in Helsinki, Finland, exhibited in a group exhibition, where I broadcast information daily about my job search in Rome.

Website: http://piianttila.com/artprojects.html
Blog: http://situationswanted.wordpress.com