The Garbage Man (The Man who Never Threw Anything Away)(2)

Narrator: 

Coming into this room feels like being part of a mystery.  

Voice: 

Not so fast! What does the word “mystery” actually mean? 

Narrator: 

Well, a mystery is something that we don’t completely understand. 

Voice: 

Okay, I get it. 

Narrator: 

Actually, that’s exactly what you don’t do, if something is a mystery! Did you get my joke? 

Voice: 

Yes, okay. Just get on with it. 

Narrator: 

So should I start again from the beginning?

Voice: 

Yes, start again!

Narrator: 

I really ought to have some music. 

Coming into this room feels like being part of a mystery.  

Who might have lived here? And where is that person now? 

Why have they collected all these things? 

Do you collect anything in particular?  

Voice: 

Are you talking to me? 

Narrator: 

Not really, I’m talking to the person listening to this audioguide!  

Voice: 

Okay, but is it all right for me to listen in for a bit? I promise I’ll be very quiet. 

Narrator: 

Yes okay, but you MUST be quiet from now on. 

Voice: 

Okay. 

Narrator: 

Shhhhh! Now then: Hello to you, our listener! Yes, I’m talking to you now. Perhaps you have things at home that you look after extra carefully? What do you think we could learn about you, just by looking at the things you keep in your room?  

Voice: 

That’s a really difficult question! 

Narrator: 

You’re supposed be keeping quiet!

Voice: 

Well okay, but I just wanted to help the person who’s listening. Maybe they can’t think how to answer?  

There’s really an awful lot of weird stuff in this room: lots of labels, a beetle, a ball of fluff, a letter, a dog leash and lots of other things. What kind of place is this?  

Narrator: 

It’s actually an artwork — all the things and even the rooms themselves are part of it. It’s supposed to be some rooms from an apartment in Moscow in Russia, where lots of people and families were crammed into very small apartments. 

The man who made all of this imagined there was a person called The Garbage Man, who lived right here in these rooms. None of the other people living in the apartment had ever met The Garbage Man, they just knew that he took good care of all the things that he found.  

If you carry on looking for clues, maybe you will be able to find out more about him.