In June 2005 all inscriptions, pictograms, company names and logos were pasted over with yellow plastic film in a section of the Neubaugasse, a shopping street in Vienna’s 7th district; thus advertising was deprived of its signification. Instead of the otherwise permanently present writings and logos the architectural arrangement of the carriers of writings and the layers of urban communication and mediality became much more prominent. As the writings and signs of the traffic guidance systems were not included in this ‘erasure’, it became especially evident how these elements stand out against other sign systems within the shared space of signs.

By the use of the monochrome enveloping of the sign carriers the sculptural aspect came to the fore in an unusual way, for – through the absence of writings – the volume of the geometrical bodies could be perceived in its fullness for the first time. The homogeneous and glossy corporeality generated the impression of architectural excrescences of the existing buildings because the carriers of writings, unburdened from their function, returned to the morphology of architecture.

Text extract: Karl Bruckschwaiger, in: Public Art Vienna. Departures - Works - Interventions. 2004 - 2007.