With their “Temporäres Büro für irrelevante Zeichen” (“Temporary Office for Irrelevant Signs”), the two artists are primarily addressing children and young people. Equipped with all kinds of office and laboratory utensils, the “Temporary Office” is an invitation to explore urban space from a new perspective. The focus is on those traces in urban space that do not initially have a communicative function: things left behind, lost and discarded.
In the ‘Temporary Office for Irrelevant Signs’, these barely recognised throw-away objects are examined and archived. Using simple sewing, knitting, painting and printing techniques, they are reproduced in oversized format – and returned to their ‘place of discovery’ in the form of giant cushions. Installed as soft, cosy objects to lean against and rest on in XXL format, they provide a stark contrast to the cool, urban grey. In this way, the once unwelcome traces no longer go unnoticed. Transformed into a shimmering sign, they attract attention and thus offer a projection surface for a critical examination of one’s own consumer behaviour.
Stephanie Müller, born 1979 in Rosenheim, lives and works in Munich. Klaus E. Dietl, born 1974 in Rosenheim, lives and works in Munich.
