Keystone-SDA
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August 28, 2024 – 2:45 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) An unusual artistic action shook the old town of Schaffhausen on Wednesday morning. Members of the municipal executive sawed public benches in two in order to install half of them in the homes of residents who were ready to welcome unknown passers-by into their homes.
Conceptual artists Frank and Patrik Riklin are behind this “artistic and social project”, which aims to reactivate the encounter between people in an unusual way. It is to last one year, according to the city of Schaffhausen.
Mention of “private” location
As early as 10:00 on Wednesday morning, chainsaws roared across a square in Schaffhausen’s old town. City councilors cut a series of yellow public benches in two. Each time, one half of the bench remains in place, the other is installed in an apartment on a voluntary basis. By making these private spaces accessible to all, the artistic action thus expands the public space.
The location of the missing half of the benches on Walther Bringolff Square will be indicated on the remaining half. City residents who wish to participate in the project will have to let unknown visitors sit on the half of the bench installed at their home.
Constructively Outsmarting the Ordinary
This artistic action “scratches stereotypes and attempts to constructively thwart the ordinary,” explain the Riklin brothers, quoted in the city’s press release. The green light it received from the political world was not, moreover, self-evident. The credit of 90,000 francs was only narrowly accepted by the municipal parliament. Many bourgeois representatives opposed it.
Municipal councillor Christine Thommen (PS) sees the project as a new dimension of urban development. “Until now, urban planning stopped at the gates of private space, not anymore,” she says with a wink.
The Riklin brothers are no strangers to high-profile artistic actions. Between 2008 and 2016, they opened zero-star hotels in CP shelters. In recent years, they have set up hotel rooms under the stars, in collaboration with farmers and rural residents. Guests could sleep in a large, comfortable bed set up in the middle of greenery with a spectacular view.
