04.

ICH WAR HIER:
Typographies from Public Toilets
MA Thesis
2025

Publication
Advisors:
Tania Prill, Asli Serbest

This project investigates toilet wall writings (known as Latrinalia) as a form of anonymous communication and unfiltered creative expression within an art institution. Originating from an interest in graffiti, stickers, and walls as communicative surfaces, the project began with an observation: while many institutional spaces are visually controlled and neutral, the toilet walls at the University of Arts Bremen appeared dense with messages, marks, and voices. What might fade into the background for those familiar with the space revealed itself as an alternative archive of expression.

A quote encountered there became a conceptual trigger: “Since writing on a toilet wall is done neither for critical acclaim nor financial reward, it is the purest form of art.” This idea prompted an investigation into whether these uncommissioned, ungraded writings could be understood as a form of art created free from institutional pressure, evaluation, and expectation. Rather than framing them as acts of vandalism or rebellion, the project considers them as spontaneous acts of creative expression.

Importantly, this project does not attempt to define what art truly is. Instead, it focuses on the power of declaring something as art and the freedom inherent in that act. By paying attention to what is usually ignored or erased, the project questions who has the authority to assign value and meaning within artistic and design contexts. The act of naming these writings as art becomes a subtle challenge to institutional norms.

Public toilets are central to this inquiry because of their spatial contradiction. They are public spaces entered for privacy, places where individuals can momentarily withdraw while remaining within a shared environment. In this tension between public and private, anonymous communication emerges. People write while unseen, leaving traces for unknown others. Latrinalia transforms these functional spaces into organic, evolving surfaces shaped by collective participation. Across these walls, a recurring message appears: “I was here. I exist. I matter.”

By documenting, scanning, and enlarging, re-presenting these messages, the project aims to amplify voices that are usually ignored or erased. It does not seek to analyze or categorize them, but to let them exist more visibly in public space. Layered, messy, and imperfect, these writings mirror the structure of communities themselves.