"Under pressure from City Marketing, tourism and commerce, beggars are barred from the streets and more and more anti-homeless furniture is appearing. With this project, I question whether we are treating the objects in the same way as we do the homeless they embody. At the moment, there seems to be little difference for those enforcing city surveillance."

'Stadstoezicht (city surveillance authority) removes art project by Dries Verhoeven', Joke Beeckmans interviewed Dries Verhoeven for Theaterkrant.nl (03-06-2016)read the article (in Dutch)

"I hope to deactivate the 'autopilot' of passersby. If we show it for a long time, people might tune it out the same way they tune out homelessness. I want to leave before that happens."

''Begging boomboxes' are bringing attention to poverty in the Netherlands', Savonne Anderson for Mashable.com (30-03-2016)read the article

"City marketing is of growing importance in the way public space is been shaped."

'These Boomboxes Beg For Money In Cities Where Homeless People Aren't Allowed To', Adele Peters for Fastcoexist.com (24-03-2016)read the article

"Songs For Thomas Piketty (...) touches on the visual arts and the theatre of ideas. There is no need to applaud, but you will return home with questions you never knew you had."

‘Verhoeven makes ghetto blasters beg', Dick van Teylingen for Theaterkrant.nl (17-03-2016)read the review (in Dutch)

"It makes some people feel uneasy and they don’t know what stance to take. Someone else said that they were more aware when they saw a ‘real’ beggar thirty metres away from the recorder."

'Increased awareness of beggars through the art project with ghetto blasters in Utrecht', Radio M / RTV Utrecht interviewed Verhoeven (07-03-2016)read the article or listen to the fragment (in Dutch)

"The city is getting more polished. Disturbing elements are being removed. Anti-homeless-furniture - benches with an armrest in the middle - prevents homeless people from sleeping there. If you want to perform in the streets of Amsterdam, you have to audition first."

'Machines that ask for money', Berengaria Liedmeier interviewed Verhoeven for Straatnieuws Utrecht (05-02-2016)read the interview (in Dutch)