Begging for a Chanel

2010

Action made in one of the most luxurious streets of Madrid. It pretends to make the audience think about a specific aspect of women in our society: the unhealthy addiction to shopping.

For that reason, an actress that represents a high-class society woman, elegant, well dressed, passes in front of a Chanel boutique and wants to buy something she has seen but she hasn’t got the money for. Desperate, she suffers from an anxiety attack and decides to star begging from the other pedestrians. She takes a piece of cardboard and writes with lipstick: “I BEG FOR A CHANEL” and, crying, she tells them to have pity for her and buy her the object she needs.

A video is recorded as a document of the action and all reactions of the people are registered in another document.

The work created a great controversy; the pedestrians couldn’t believe it and all kind of reactions took place. The piece hit the news and was published and spread all over different media, generating all sorts of discussions on TV channels, radio stations and newspapers as well as in some internet blogs.