Rirkrit Tiravanija’s first planned trip to Germany in 1993 fell apart due to visa issues: The artist was actually supposed to take part in an exhibition at Galerie Max Hetzler in Cologne, but was unable to due to his uncertain residence status in the USA, where he was living at the time. Instead, Tiravanija decided to send instructions by fax to the gallery so that his artwork could be set up there by other people. This resulted in the work untitled 1993 (café deutschland).

In this artwork, Tiravanija addresses the fate of people who are discriminated against because of their background, their appearance, their identity and/or their age. At the exhibition in Cologne, visitors were able to stand and move around in a replica of the bar from the film. 

Travelling and being on the road is an important theme for Rirkrit Tiravanija. In previous centuries, it was Western artists who travelled to find inspiration for their art. The cultures and people of the places they travelled to were often depicted very superficially. People were reduced to objects and not perceived at eye level. The Western view of artists emphasised racist stereotypes. Tiravanija comments critically on this perspective. In his travels, Europe becomes the Other – he reverses the Western view.

Sausages for everyone: At the opening of Rirkrit Tiravanija's second exhibition at the gallery neugerriemschneider in November 1997, a sausage seller from Alexanderplatz handed out sausages to visitors.

Tiravanija did not give the actors any instructions for the performance; they were able to choose and perform passages from the two texts themselves. Three lacquered wooden boards in the colours black, red and yellow formed the stage for the actors, with colours reminiscent of the national flag of the Federal Republic of Germany. A fourth wooden panel, painted white, completed the venue.

By making the actors dress as a sausage and a potato, Tiravanija was dealing with German clichés, such as the idea of things that are considered “typically German”. Tiravanija also alluded to the social situation in Germany at the time. The choice of texts points to this: Faust is a bourgeois scholar and Franz Biberkopf (a character from the novel Berlin Alexanderplatz) is a labourer released from prison – two figures who embody the divide between the privileged bourgeoisie and the working class. In 1997, eight years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany was in a state of uncertainty. This can still be felt to some extent today: living conditions in East and West Germany continue to differ.

In Western exhibition centres and museums, people often move silently through the rooms and passively look at works of art. Institutions often maintain a distance from life. Tiravanija wants everyday life to enter the exhibitions, and to give space to visitors’ personal life experiences. Real-life situations are exhibited as art. They are both an object of contemplation and a stimulus for personal reflection. The artist thus questions what museums and exhibition centres present as art and how they display those works. He criticises the power of institutions. He also wants to draw attention to the fact that the voices and experiences of people who have experienced discrimination and racism are often overlooked and ignored.