Street Art Project, Berlin, 2021

Stainless steel

Funded by the Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn

Round stainless steel mirrors marked with the text fragment

are temporarily presented to passers by at head height on building façades, bus stops etc. The relief-like typography* of the text makes it oscillate between three possible readings:

wenn ich nicht bin - if I am not

wenn ich nicht ich bin - if I am not me

wenn ich ich bin - if I am me

thereby addressing fundamental questions of modern life concerning identity and existence.

The parallelism of the three ways of reading prevents unambiguous interpretation: in German, "ich sein" ("being me") and "nicht ich sein" ("not being me") are always typographically included in "nicht sein" ("not being").
Since the viewers see a self-reflection during the process of reading, their perspective is directed towards themselves.

The objects with a size of 26 cm appear unannounced and remain temporarily in various districts, before disappearing again.

* The letters in black are engraved into the mirror in a way that "psychedelically" distorts the reflection around the engraved letters. The grey letters (the "ich" in the word "nicht") are cut out and are therefore embedded in the mirror surface – thereby preventing any distortion.

The German word for "I" ("ich") is contained at the centre of the German word for "not" ("nicht").