Inside Outside Under Bucharest
2013 – 2016

“I wish I had a childhood like other children, who have their parents, their toys… It’s been different for me: street people are my family now.”

— Bruce Lee, king of the tunnels

A hole in the ground. The border between two parallel universes.

When we first visited their subterranean house in Bucharest city centre, we never expected that over time we would become part of their family. Children, aged up to forty years, were the street tribe of Gara de Nord.
The leading figure of the group, a charismatic and experienced man called Bruce Lee, spent the last few years trying to provide a comfortable house for the community to stay in. He was proud to show their struggle for self-sustenance, despite being neglected by the rest of the world. As if they were natives of the street, they sought survival through the resources that were available to them. But spring 2014 brought overwhelming exposure to the Gara de Nord story: it repeatedly appeared in local and international media with reports focusing mainly on drugs abuse. One of the results being the arrest of Bruce Lee and many others in July 2015. Accused of organized crime and drug trafficking, they were sentenced to 10-20 years in prison.

For two years we lived on the streets of Bucharest with one of the most marginalised communities in Europe. During this prolonged stay, our own identity became increasingly blurred. The boundaries between us gradually disintegrated, paving the way for a new and clearer understanding. Having experienced some consequences of social disorder ourselves, we have been forced to reconsider our own condition; realizing how fragile and unpredictable the principles that govern the existence of humankind are.