“Street Cleaning Event” is a Fluxus performance by Hi Red Center. According to the event score of the performance the performers are to wear lab coats and clean a designated sidewalk with items not usually used in street cleaning.

We performed the event in our neighbourhood Cihangir, Istanbul.

One afternoon, we approached the pavement with our lab coats on. We might have looked serious if only we weren’t carrying tiny schoolbags designed for 4-year old kids.These bags were our Fluxkits and they contained teeth brushes, shaving brushes, hygenic pads, colognes, deodorants and such. With a fluorescent green tape, we framed the area between two street lamps and then divided it into three, creating our “stage”.

Some passerbys merely greeted us with warm “kolay gelsin”s, a very common phrase used in Turkish, which means, “Hope it goes smoothly ”. The more attentive and curious ones asked what we were doing and we said “We are cleaning” and when they asked “Why?” and we replied, “Because it’s dirty”. We overheard their discussions, some speculated that we were a CSI unit, a group of kids suggested that we were removing some obscene graffiti, old ladies carefully examined our inventory and kindly warned us that they were not suitable for cleaning. After a tiresome but meditative process which lasted about an hour, we packed, removed the tapes from the pavement and then walked away.