A Constructive Conversation (Ein konstruktives Gespräch)

2025
Packing paper, adhesive tape, folded and glued
Collaborative work with Ikue Ohta at super+Centercourt
Approx. H307 × W465 × D468 cm

In the site-specific installation A Constructive Conversation, Ikue Ohta and I explore the history of Munich’s super+Centercourt. Originally conceived as a public passageway, the space has repeatedly served as a temporary shelter for people experiencing homelessness due to its open and accessible structure. This history of a place caught between visibility and displacement forms the starting point of our work. The installation examines the relationship between the body, private retreat, and social vulnerability.

Phase 1: During the first phase, the space can only be viewed through the storefront window. The entire interior is lined with packing paper and adhesive tape, creating a fragile shell around the space. The temporary nature of these materials points to transitional situations and provisional forms of shelter.

Phase 2: In the second phase, the space becomes accessible to visitors upon the opening. The work can be experienced freely from both outside and within. We remove the paper from the first phase and reshape it into house-like sculptures. Because the material retains its folds and traces of use, the history of its previous enclosure remains embedded in the objects. Resembling packages in constant transit, they evoke the fleeting nature of provisional dwellings and raise questions about the place of the individual within an unstable urban environment.

A Constructive Conversation refers not only to the dialogue between our two artistic positions. Rather, it draws attention to the reciprocal relationship between people and space—and, with it, to the ways in which we use material enclosures to relate to our surroundings. The work does not seek to provide answers, but instead attempts to trace the necessity of human shelter alongside its inherent fragility.