E8plus Hackney is a social community project and exhibition located in Hackney Central, in the E8 postcode.

 

Eight emerging artists were paired with eight homeless people from the Hackney Central area. Over six months, they met and shared their stories in a public square under the partnership of a local independent food distribution organisation, the Saturday Soup Kitchen, and conceptualised and 

co-created a series of art pieces.

 

The stories of the participants unfold in the resulting exhibition, ‘A Journey through Mare Street’. Through an immersive narrative experience of Mare Street, visitors are asked to ‘take on’ the character’s point of view and explore the space with a map. By encouraging viewers to see a familiar place through different eyes, the exhibition aims to stimulate transformation, highlighting the negative aspects of the rapid gentrification that areas such as Hackney Central are undergoing. E8plus is a hyper-local experiment in community cohesion, challenging the stereotypes of homelessness through art and storytelling.

 

On the exhibition’s opening night, a silent auction was held for the art pieces. The proceeds went to the Saturday Soup Kitchen to help them become a registered charity and improve their activities for the benefit of the local homeless community.