VS02, décollage with tape and staples, ca. 71 x 141 cm, 2024
Believe me, it's damn hard to resist temptation, especially in the form of this awesome material I found in Copenhagen.
You have to go to the non-places if you want to understand a city. Believe it or not, beauty is only hidden in the non-places - but it is there!
You probably have no idea how happy this almost dystopian-looking place can make you. Because a form of freedom can be felt and seen here that we deny ourselves in the regulated structure of an urban space.
Come with me!
By the way, why is it called the Nørrebro files? Because a kind of evidence and course of events is recorded here.
August 29, 8:34 pm: First sightings and inspections at Rådhuspladsen. My ecologically correct rental bike took me there.
August 30, 2:28 pm: Nørrebro. After 3 years, I returned to this uninviting place under the city motorway, which never ceases to amaze me.
August 30, 2:28pm - 3:01 pm: I take a lot of photos to document the situation, like these weight loss pill photos with "before" and "after".
I also take the photos so that I can find the poster-rip-off-site later. Because I couldn't transport that much on the first day.
August 30, 2:58 pm: Here you can see the location of the later artwork ‘Blixens Pagter’. Logically, I asked myself why someone would smear thick paint over the portrait of the Danish writer Tanja Blixen (‘Out of Africa’).
What was the purpose of this action? Should this action continue? Was the actionist disturbed? Did he run out of paint, was he satisfied with the result?
August 30, 9:25 pm: I have already been able to tear some material off the thick, fat concrete pillars this evening.
I was sweating like a beast. Luckily there was free beer at Fælledparken!
<n.d.> This is where the documentation becomes uncertain. Did I return to the scene that evening?? You might think so from the following pictures...
More report on request :)
WiLD WiLD GENOvA, vibrant CITY, CITTÁ vivace.
A DÉCOLLAGE source of HAPPinESS.
Flaneuring through the streets of Genova conveys an immediate and strong sense of life.
Suddenly, torn pieces of posters appear as a paper sculpture.
Title: 7a8, décollage, 72,0 x 47,5 x 8,5 cm, 2023
On the way from Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains I saw these old posters from the moving car. I stopped and jumped out with my equipment.
I was able to peel off just 2 layers. The lower layer revealed wonderful structures and signs of decay.
The previous week I had found an old Ikea frame on the bulky waste in Stuttgart. I painted this frame and used it to mount the artpop series on it.
Strauss, décollage in wooden and painted frame, 37,3 x 117,0 cm, 2023
Some details:
The venerable hanseatic city of Bremen still offers a paradise of (ripped) posters.
For some local politicians, the use of billboards that are no longer used, is like a disfigurement.
After all, it is an expression of public participation. The neighbourhood is alive.
Ripping off the posters was quite easy, because it was wet due to rainy weather.
The posters on the left side look quite unspectacular. But: Under the "SO!" poster as well as under the posters next to it, there was a hidden treasure, an outstanding example of a so called retro d'affiche (the back of a poster) with grease pencil, felt pen and translucent and shimmering fragments of posters.
Wild posters and tags
In portuguese cities like Lisboa, Aveiro or Porto one can find décollage material at the power cable distributors.
As the german term is "Kabelverteilerschrank" or "KVS", the series is titled with KVS plus serial number.
Here again the diversity of décollages manifests itself.
Do Noierto, décollage with spraypaint, felt-pen, 100 x 204 cm, 2020
On August 6, 2016 some friends accompanied an décollage action in Budweis (České Budějovice). On the way to a typical czech and
cozy restaurant, I discovered an electrical box covered by old posters. The decision and mission was clear: RIPPING THE POSTERS!
The action was filmed. You will hear some comments in German. Enjoy the first steps of a MAKING OF.
A new series from Vienna. I was there in the 2nd week of 2016, I strolled through the city - and found wonderful old billboards.