Offcuts was first conceived as a series of 5 poster prints on affiche paper, displayed on the security fence of a derelict gas station, across the street from the artist’s apartment in the Neukölln district of Berlin.

The images depict a nude figure wrapped in discarded print paper. Drawing on classical painting and contemporary advertising, the posters presented an interruption in the flow of promotional images that regularly occupied the site, and were a fragile reminder of its unacknowledged and vulnerable inhabitants.

In the years since the site closed, it became an unofficial shelter for the homeless, a place to shoot up, a party venue, a photo opportunity for tourists, a murder scene; a revolving window into the wider troubled and gentrifying neighbourhood around it. A palimpsest of bodies and paper, marked by transience, fragility, and anonymity. The images hung amongst the twisted remains of promo posters and show flyers; papers published in the elements, working until failure.

Offcuts is the first in Selbst Tanken’s series of expanded publications in the fields of artistic practice and research.