THE ROOTLESS
FINN MAJLUND | AGE 43
Finn Majlund was born and raised in Frederikshavn.
At the age of 12, he asked to be sent to a children’s home because his mother beat him. He needed safety after having lived alone with her for a few years after his parents’ divorce. Later, his father died of cancer and his mother of a cerebral haemorrhage.
Finn began drinking in earnest as a 14-year-old and after finishing school, he tried to survive with different jobs. After four years in the army and a turn in prison for robbery, he became a trained floor fitter in 1989. He travelled to Norway, but instead he got a job in a carnival and returned to Denmark as a vagabond.
Today, Finn is living as an alcoholic on the streets of Odense.
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The Rootless
‘The Rootless’ is a project about homeless people in Denmark, which is intended to further understanding of the situation of the homeless by focusing on their lives and living conditions through a photo exhibition and the nationwide publishing of a book.
‘The Rootless’ are a group of 30 people who has somehow been pushed out of society either by or without conscious choice and who need more help than that which is provided by the efforts of our society. A large part of the problem is the fact that we do not look the people we are supposed to help in the eye.
Most of us would rather not face the reality we are confronted by through these people. Most of us fail to grasp the relations that take place in the streets and that makes it challenging for us to understand the homeless rather than turning our backs on them. This project tries to diminish the distance between us and homeless people by giving them facial features and telling their stories.
‘The Rootless’ was exhibited in 2010 as an outdoor exhibition in 6 larger cities in Denmark and had its Inaugural exhibition at the art festival Lys over Lolland (Light Over Lolland) same year.
