St. Gallen, Switzerland
For Frank and Patrik Riklin, the best art is not recognizable as such. With their Swiss Atelier für Sonderaufgaben (Studio for special works), the two brothers create interventions in every day live, embedding the society as a part of them. Among the multiple desks and tables, massively loaded with files and books, two rows of orange folding chairs, scraped from a movie theatre, face a white wall. The loft-studio of Frank and Patrik Riklin is on the top floor of a former textile factory in St. Gallen at Lake Constance, and it seems rather a charming office than an artists‘ place.
10 years ago, when the twins still separately went to art schools in Zurich and in Berlin, they founded “Atelier für Sonderaufgaben”. Since then, they developed interventions in the public space, video productions, seminars and training courses. Their approach is to analyse coherences as artists. Detached from the overall system, they search for unconventional solutions, interacting with people who often become actors in their plans.