Annen Street

2011, 25 strips, each 11 x 250 cm, direct printing on acryl glass

Nominated for Boesner Art Award, 2011

Economic and social transformations leave subtle traces in the urban landscape. In Annen Street, Julia Gaisbacher documents the remaining shop signs of Graz’s historic shopping street, preserving fragments of a disappearing local retail culture.

Through the photographic collection and recomposition of these signs, she creates two portraits of the street that visualize processes of urban change. The barcode-like compositions reflect both the transformation of the city and the material culture of commercial signage, reinforced by the direct printing of the photographs onto acrylic glass—a technique commonly used for storefront lettering.