The vitrine at U-Bahnhof Alt-Tempelhof regularly displays works by Berlin artists. Philipp Boshart and Yan Pechatscheck have chosen to subvert the usual exhibition process. Instead of displaying something inside the vitrine, they have created a custom-fit installation that can be understood as an extension of the existing showcase.
Through the precise use of the industrial colors RAL 7043 and RAL 7011 (traffic grey and iron grey), which are commonly used in public spaces, they transform a wooden crate into a metal box sealed with dark grey protective paint. The display case is stripped of its function. The inside of the custom-fit extension is not visible from the outside, except for a narrow gap at the bottom. Hidden in a kind of gutter, typical station waste can be seen with some effort, for example, by using a cell phone flashlight. The color scheme of the mysterious double inside is identical to that of the frame of the display case and nearby electrical boxes. Each side of the ostensibly metallic construct can be interpreted as an illusory panel painting. The surface, although removed from the course of events inside the vitrine, appears worn and exhibits seemingly organically grown networks of traces and entangled facts, as is typical of urban space in its supreme harmony.
No matter which way you look at it, a grayish ornament waits patiently in the display case. The glass of the vitrine is all the more reflective due to the dark background. The surrounding hustle and bustle, the lively activity at the station, rhythmically divided by short, mostly uncomfortable pauses gains a projection surface on the bulky construction. Its frame, entwined with graffiti tags, emerges with glowing names and a sense of self-will. What, if anything, does this ingenious yet frugal work conceal? Here, the hidden takes the form of a deliberately placed stimulus. Yet the viewers are not thrown back onto themselves, but rather onto the space of their presence.