Building façades in towns and cities have always been used as a platform for messages directed against the power structures in the prevailing system. These statements written illicitly on walls are often dealt with by executive counteractions which I call ‘police paintings’, and which are no less illegal. The aim of these interventions mainly using various shades of grey paint is to neutralize graffiti by concealing it. The shape and size of these abstract areas depend on the dimensions of the graffiti beneath. For years, I’ve been collecting examples of such overpainting on my travels. The ‘Police Paintings’ are replicas of these overpaintings which I directly apply to gallery and museum walls. Removed from their original context, they testify to civil disobedience and political activism within totalitarian state structures – and also question the role which art can or should play.

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Installation view Kunstraum Innsbruck.