WHO ARE EVERYDAY HEROES?

Led by a driving force in expressing their pure desire to create, everyday heroes expand peoples sense of what is possible for a human being. With the consistency of their work and their quiet contribution on a daily basis, the Everyday Hero brings a new definition of heroism as something achievable, building a whole new monument. Hidden, humble, modest - but extraordinary. People of that caliber are for whom this tomb embodies. And she is one of them.

A woman who chose to live under the veil of mystery, never revealing a treasure of her work to anyone. Retaining freedom of expression by keeping her passion invisible and her work away from the world. Her heroism is in her honesty in doing what she loved and in her constant focus towards her true passion - street photography. She spent most of her time vividly documenting raw reality and everyday life of downtown Chicago.

A nanny, a socialist, a feminist, a photographer, an everyday hero - Vivian Maier.

DEATH AS A PART OF EVERYDAY LIFE

In traditional terms of understanding, a tomb is an isolated monument, a “discursive space that is somehow ‘other’: disturbing, intense, incompatible, contradictory or transforming” (Michael Foucault, Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias).

On the other hand, a tomb of everyday heroes presents a redefinition of those traditional aspects. Combined with the state of being an everyday hero, that leads into the direction of relocating the intervention into the city centre. This kind of displacement captures most of Vivian’s character, being always present but invisible.

SUBTLE MONUMENT

A tomb for Vivian Maier is embodied as a continuous linear reflection which unpretentiously captures the attention of passers-by. Positioned at the waistline height, where she always held her camera, carved in at the street facades around the same paths of Chicago she was (re)visiting, her tomb is a reconstitution of a new monument, experienced from human’s perspective.

INFINITE PORTRAITS-REFLECTIONS OF NOWADAYS HEROES

The model of the camera she predominantly used was a Rolleiflex, which is composed of two separate cameras joined in a twin-camera: the bottom half is the taking-camera, in which film is exposed; the upper half is the viewing-camera, which is designed on the mirror-reflex principle. The image forming rays are transmitted by the fully open viewing lens, projected on to the ground glass screen via the mirror and the result is a right-side-up ground glass image, producing a full sized image of the original picture (6cm x 6cm). Rolleiflex is held at the waist, with the viewfinder mounted on top. The practical application of this tool allowed Vivian to stay invisible.

Transmitting the concept of the functioning of this specific camera and the person who manages it (keeping the waistline height, the angle of the Rolleiflex’s mirror and the size of the film), a new ‘infinite camera’ is born. The image reflected in a mirror is a 'placeless place', an unreal virtual place that allows one to see one's own visibility.

Vivian Maier’s tomb is reflecting her physical absence and subtle presence of her spirit, eye and achievements. Her tomb brings death in an affirmative manner, reminds and inspires the everyday heroes to continue fulfilling their deepest passion, just like she did.