Take me with you is a performance that aims to help the workers of the Canary Wharf area of London get to know each other a bit better.

The area of Canary Wharf is less than 20 years old and at the end of 2006 it had the population of more than 9000 workers out of whom only 25% live in the surrounding areas. The recent development of the area, the relatively young age of the people who work here and the frequent staff turnover make the population have only few memories related to the place. People who work there perceive the area as a big workplace, without considering any form of integration with others. This gap between the people is even more noticeable between the two main categories present here: businesspeople and catering/shop staff. These two communities live in two separate worlds and they mainly meet each other during the short time of the lunch break.

When a friend of mine first started to work for a chain of hotels he received one of those classic badges with the name. The strange thing was that they gave him a badge with the name “Abul” printed on it while his real Polish name was “Lenc”.
Where is the reason in putting a name on someone’s shirt if it is not their real name?

The project consists of two pieces of work, dedicated respectively to each of the two groups of people.
The first one, made for businesspeople, consists of a Cd with a portrait of an anonymous waitress. The subject will have the “Abul” badge, her face will not be visible and there will be the sentence “I’m not Abul” at the bottom of the frame. In the same Cd, a text will contain a short personal message from a worker. “Take me with you” will be written on the Cd cover.
The second one, made for people employed in catering/shops businesses, will be a postcard: on the front side, a portrait of an anonymous businessman with his black bag, his face will not be visible. On the back, a short personal message from a worker.

This project would be effective in other different environments, wherever there is lack of other’s perception.