One Line Portrait
(2019)

"One Line Portrait" is part of the research "Public Laundry, Hanging Territories". This project explores how the banal, when placed in a specific context, can become a symbolic expression of culture and its spatial-social practices. In June 2019, a clothesline was installed in the quiet cityscape of Weimar, portraying the presence of a different individual each day for one week.

Suspended above a central street—where private and public life intersect—the clothesline acted like a flag, signaling an individual's presence within the public realm. By inserting this everyday object into the seemingly controlled urban environment, the work conveyed a sense of otherness and foreignness.

The clothesline becomes a kind of territory—one that reflects living conditions and serves as an unfiltered portrait of people’s lives. Positioned at the threshold between private and public, it permeates the boundaries of both, speaking as much through its presence as through its absence.

Credits