Have a Sandwich!

Have a Break! Have a Sandwich! is an ephemeral installation consisting of a stack of sandwiches with margarine and kielbasa, wrapped in a newspaper. Their expiration date is one day. The viewer can take a sandwich to consume or waste it, to keep or to share it.
The title of the installation refers to the iconic advertising slogan – HAVE A BREAK! – for a chocolate candy bar that had been popularised to such extent that in 2004 the producer officially demanded to register it as a trademark.
A break from work is an employee’s privilege. Labour laws provide for different types of breaks – they can be both free and paid, some depend on the working time, some on the needs of employees and the specifics of their duties.
Bread with margarine and kielbasa wrapped in a newspaper was a stereotypical breakfast of a Polish worker at the time of the People’s Republic of Poland. This type of breakfast is the antithesis of the popular candy bar – it is simple, cheap and unattractive. Each sandwich is wrapped up in the daily newspaper, and more precisely in the advertisement section, which adds an ironic dimension to the installation.

photo: Olga Jasnowska