On the topic of signs

Before the summer holidays, I had the pleasure of visiting the ARoS Museum of Modern Art in Aarhus, Denmark - and I have to admit that I share the museum's idea that it is not only a museum but also a mental fitness center. Just as, it is fair to say, many other excellent museums.
One of the biggest experiences I got was on the floor hosting the exhibition "No Man's An Island - The Satanic Verses", which presents works from the museum collections. And what made me particularly impressed was the Finnish artist Jani Leinonen's work, Beggars' Signs, which consists of framed signs, Leinonen has purchased from panhandlers in different cities.
I know that the museum in the accompanying text tells me that Leinonen hereby exposes "the world of art as a massive economic circuit" in a world, "where everything can be acquired for money: apparently even suffering people's cries for help."
Now I do not know how Leinonen has made his purchases - if I had been in his place, I would (because he could hardly bring all these people in a situation where they would be permanently without the need to beg) primarily have given a substantial payment for my contributors and have made sure that they would immediately have been able to produce a new sign. Thus I would just have been one of many who helped people who had fallen through the security net towards the bottom of society.
But I was most affected by a specific one of the signs displayed:

Excerpt from Jani Leinonen: Beggars’ Signs (2009-2015) ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum

Skiltet var angiveligt indkøbt i Los Angeles og bar teksten:

PLeaSe HeLP
Need Money For clothes And Haircut to Look For A Job.
Am willing to work Hard.
Ready to change My Life.
Need HeLP to stART
Thank you!

Now, I'm not rich enough to be able to afford a profound change in the lives of another human being - but this sign immediately gives me greater desire to make a difference to the one who made the sign. Not giving money - but by taking them out and organizing a haircut and some clothes and by checking if I had someone in my network that would be able to use that person in a job. And then, keep in touch and find out how things went. It is far from certain that the beggar would get a bright and happy life out of it - but the sign shows a willingness that gives the viewer a hope that a penny spent here will make a greater difference than a penny spent on one of the other panhandlers.
And as a final point: I do not agree with the accompanying text that "by purchasing material instead of producing it, Leinonen undermines the idea of ​​the artist as the creature genius". Because it is Leinonen who has got the idea - and first of all, it is precisely him who has been the creative soul. Yes, he bought the signs - but other artists also buy their raw materials and put them together so they become art, right?
I have since read an interview with Erlend Høyersten, director of the museum, in the Danish paper Kristeligt Dagblad, where he mentions this work as one of five especially suitable for mental fitness because "it's a collection of panhandlers' signs and in most religions it is seen as a virtue to help others". At least it was mental fitness to my mind. And maybe it's my protestant upbringing, which means that I feel like a greater virtue in helping those who show the greatest willingness to make an effort to help themselves in the future.
(Translated from Noget om at skilte med noget, originally published August 9th, 2017)