ABOUT THE INITIATORS OF SOLLBRUCHSTELLE

SOLLBRUCHSTELLE was initiated by Nikkol Rot and Jenja Roman Doerig. Their concept of exhibiting art in a buildings marked for demolishment and having the art destroyed along with said buildings is the logical consequence of their shared history.

The photographer Rot and the picture editor Doerig were hired in 2008 for a video slideshow for a project called "Minimal Architecture", which took place in a former warehouse. The 10,000 event flyers with their names on them had already been printed when the two met for the first time. But the collaboration got off to a good start.

In their slideshow entitled "Different", they showed portraits of people who live outside of social norms: drag queens, lesbians, a body suspension practicioner…

"Doerig sees Red" is how they have described their collaboration ever since, in which Rot portrays people or takes pictures of scenes and Doerig curates the images.

After portraying the Zurich Drag Queen Pageant in 2009, they presented four joint projects in 2011 as part of the "Gelegenheiten" exhibition in Berlin-Neukölln: a performance with a video slideshow entitled "Seelenfleisch", the photo series "Ein Männlein steht im Walde" and, together with Mad Kate, "Accessoires" and "Struwwelpeter".

The exhibition space was a former butcher shop, an old building with a history, with cracks in the tiles, which allowed the pictures to appear in a completely new context.

At the time, Rot and Doerig would have preferred to apply the works directly to the walls with photo wallpaper in order to bring the building into a more direct interplay with the art and to be able to work with the existing structures. Thus the idea of showing art in buildings marked for demolition was born.

A short time later, Rot and Doerig developed what they call the founding version of SOLLBRUCHSTELLE’s Demolition Art: In a house in Zürich's Schwamendingen district that had been cleared for demolition, they exhibited Rot's work from the last five years in the form of photographic wallpaper – and thus in a new context. The exhibition was complemented by a performance by Mad Kate and a concert by Stella Glitter. The garage of the single-family home was transformed into a bar. The project deliberately set itself apart from conventional and established exhibition concepts.

Rot and Doerig were pleasantly surprised by the visit of Frank Spenna, Communications Director of Feller AG, manufacturer of electrical sockets, switches and smart technology for the electrical industry, who was enthusiastic about the concept and pledged his support for future projects.