When artists take over the workplace
January 19, 2018
Roughly 18 million people — more than 40 percent of all wage earners — work in German offices, and the trend is on the rise, especially in the IT sector. Most employees make an effort to embellish their workplace in an individual fashion with personal pictures, creative coffee mugs or a huge calendar with extraordinary photographs.
But hardly anybody thinks of the workplace as a source of art. And that's why visitors to the new exhibition in the city gallery of Bietigheim-Bissingen, north of Stuttgart, are quite amazed at how the mundane office supplies they've used for years have been turned into works of art.
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A source of inspiration
The idea of creating office art is not altogether new. Inspired by conceptual art, it actually originated in the 1960s when object artist Peter Roehr experimented with industrially produced materials.
He was particularly fond of all kinds of stickers, labels and tags, wooden rulers and punch cards that he attached to cardboard. In this way, he developed an organizing principle that was intended to illustrate the stereotypes of a mass society.
Today, a growing number of artists have discovered the office as a source of inspiration and material. Among them is Ignacio Uriarte, who worked for as an office employee for many years, where he developed his artistic ideas while making phone calls. In 2003, he quit his job with the intention of devoting all his time to office art.
His 12-part series "Münchener Kritzeleien" ("Munich Scribbles") — produced with a simple ballpoint pen that can be found in millions of offices worldwide — can now be admired in the new exhibition.
Also featured are the kinds of office supplies that have come under the threat of extinction due to digitalization, including paper, staples, folders and files. The objective of the artists represented in the exhibition is to save such objects from oblivion.
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Administrative machinery as oppressive mechanism
The artworks present the office as a site of order and a symbol of regulation, administration and bureaucracy, and even a symbol of power. Over and over again the artists show that, despite structural reforms, the slow administrative machinery hasn't changed — or has even become worse, an idea well illustrated by Beate Engl's interactive "Burnout Machine."
The exhibition "Out of Office: Büro-Kunst oder das Büro im Museum" ("Out of Office: Office art or the office in the museum") features more than 100 works and installations of concrete and conceptual art by 25 artists. It runs from January 20 to April 8, 2018, in the city gallery of Bietigheim-Bissingen.