Simo Saarikoski: Mr and Ms Stragedy – a journey towards the European Dream

Completion year: 2010

Technique: Photography on paper

Keywords: Simo Saarikoski, Lora Dimova, Mr and Ms Stragedy – a journey towards the European Dream, valokuva

Photography and Video / in collaboration with Lora Dimova

20 photography on paper (70×100 cm / 50x70cm) / 2 SD videos (06:38 min / 00:52 min)

“The series presents a fictional Eastern European couple on their journey to Western Europe, searching for a better life. With fantasy, realism and black humor it reveals the difficulties in the task, asking the vital question: can the expectations and real life needs meet each other? What does it take to integrate successfully into new culture when your everyday life is a struggle to survive in urban environment? Mr and Ms Stragedy are two characters trying to reach the ideal of our society. Success is their ultimate goal, no matter what it takes to achieve it. They both strive to fulfill the image for the prosperous cosmopolitan. Truly they are greed, like human nature is. Their approach is at the same time naive, but optimistic helping them to face the challenges of urban life. The project has been realized in Sofia, Bulgaria and Berlin, Germany between autumn 2009 and summer 2010.”

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