For a very specific reason Schaffhausen residents destroy city benches with a chainsaw
Benches are sawn up in Schaffhausen on Wednesday morning. But there is a specific reason for the supposedly senseless destruction.
28.08.2024, 11:25
28.08.2024, 11:28
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- Benches are being sawn up in Schaffhausen on Wednesday morning.
- But the seemingly senseless destruction has a specific reason.
- There is an art project behind the action.
On the tranquil Walther-Bringolf-Platz in Schaffhausen's old town, chainsaws howled at 10 o'clock on Wednesday morning. The yellow benches, which have now been cut in half, are to be "released into the wild" into the private interiors of city residents, as the city of Schaffhausen announced on Wednesday.
The bench sections are to remain publicly accessible in their new locations, thus expanding the public space and enabling unusual encounters between people. The "social art project" is set to last one year.
"What looks like a prank is actually a deliberately subversive act of unusualization. It scratches away at stereotypes and attempts to constructively flout the ordinary," the Riklin brothers are quoted as saying in the press release.
Politicians criticize project
In Schaffhausen politics, the campaign caused a stir even before it actually became known. The loan of 90,000 Swiss francs was only narrowly approved by the city parliament, and the expenditure for an unspecified art project met with resistance from the civic party.
City councillor Christine Thommen (SP) now sees the project as a new dimension in urban development. "This previously ended at the border to the private sphere - now it no longer does," she is quoted as saying.
Half of the halved benches will remain on Walther-Bringolf-Platz and will be marked with signs indicating the new location of the missing half of the bench. City dwellers should place them in their living rooms, for example, and allow visitors to take a seat on them.
The Riklin brothers, who were born and raised in St. Gallen in 1973, founded the artistic company "Atelier für Sonderaufgaben" in 1999. They see themselves as actors between art, society and the economy. They gained greater attention with their work "Null Stern Hotel" (2008 and 2016), among others.
