Master Lock 2024

 

Master Lock at Jaroslav Frágner Gallery, Right For Housing group show, 2024

 

A multimedia installation of locks that, when a code is entered, give out the keys to an adjacent apartment building. The keys are stored in these boxes by owners of short-term Airbnb rentals. So that they don’t even have to greet the tourists they rent out their properties to on arrival, thus minimizing their operating costs and maximizing their profits. Thus, houses where locals have lived for generations become illegal hotels. The online platform Airbnb, which is used by landlords for commercial purposes, is a toxic phenomenon in most major European cities. The burden of this traffic is being passed on to the old inhabitants and is one of the reasons for gentrification and displacement of the local population. Our cities are becoming uninhabitable not only for the lower but also for the middle class. The process of transformation of flat-houses into short-term accommodation is taking place on a global scale. Various European cities are trying to regulate the Airbnb project. The biggest players in this field in the Czech Republic are also local oligarchs with billions in profits.. The existence of the social network Airbnb has allowed the richest to become even richer, while the poorer ones have to move out of neighbourhoods where their families have lived for generations. We need to radically demonstrate that housing should not be an object of speculation and investment, but a basic human right. Expropriate the oligarchs!

 

Airbnb boxes, keys to Airbnb apartments in Prague, chains
Desk with monitor standing on large lever pliers
Video with documentation of urban guerilla action
On the table board lies the coat of arms of Prague made of epoxide, in which the keys to Prague apartments are encased
Thanks_ Epos257, Přemysl Zajiček, Pavel Matěj, Petr Racek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urban guerilla action documentation

 

 

 

 

 

Making of