Office Figures, by Bärbel Praun

When I had moved into my studio in 2019 I was told that the building, probably from the 60ies in an industrial area of Hamburg and once a custom office, will be torn down soon to build a new living and shopping area. The room itself was small, squared and had a kind of platform at the two windows where I imagine the clerk sat at their desk. The floor was a yellowish-brown linoleum and apart from that the room was empty when I moved in. In this dusty and frumpy atmosphere I noticed little traces in the room, leftovers, stories from who had might worked there. Scratches along the wall, probably from an office chair scrubbing. Holes from nails, at some places still screws in the wall. Crumbling plaster at the ceiling. This was the starting point of the series office figures: I started to fill the space with geometric shapes, stellar constellations, softened corners – and continued until I had to move out the following year. All materials used for these interventions in the room are discarded and found objects.

-Bärbel Praun

with the kind support of Accademia Tedesca Roma Villa Massimo