International Art in Public Places competition, 2022
1st prize, to be completed in 2027

Federal Foreign Office

Aluminium, anodized

Presentation: Patrick Oswald

The design “same here…” presents complex yellow lettering attached on both sides of the gate railings, thereby forming a mirrored, initially illegible, symmetrical symbol. However, as one approaches the gate, the objects become recognisable as lettering formed from the words “same here but different”.

The design is striking in highlighting the gate’s separating character on the one hand, while partially undermining that quality on the other. The language taken from a universal, commonplace slogan creates a permeability due its horizontal alignment, compared to the vertical railings. As viewers approach the initially bewildering lettering, which seems either to stem from a foreign culture or be some sort of graffiti symbol, it gradually reveals itself as an ambivalent message from the more familiar English-speaking region. The actual tension lies in the incongruity of a normally forbidden graffiti tag on a highly official building, namely the Foreign Office.

The entire work thrives on a duality expressed on several levels: firstly with respect to the lettering applied both inside and outside; secondly, through the phrase “same here but different”, which articulates the connecting aspect of separating elements and vice versa. Furthermore, at first glance, the hieroglyphic nature of the text inspires associations with Babylonian incomprehensibility, which is only apparently resolved. From that perspective, the design complicates its own decoding and inspires a fruitful disappointment in the viewer.

(Jury’s assessment)