Transformer is a non-profit project space in the middle of a busy Washington DC commercial district. As I was told, the area was the typical run down forgotten neighbourhood with empty shop-fronts and social problems, when the space was set up 15 years ago. Since then , however, the area has undergone a massive gentrification, and now sports up-market brand stores as well as impossibly high rents.

My stay in Washington was made possible by both the enthusiastic support from Transformer director Victoria Reis and staff, as well as by being invited as Artist in Residence at the American University who co-hosted the project, where the engagement of professor Andy Holtin was pivotal. Apart from inviting my project over to the States, Holtin also very generously lent us his entire studio and workshop, so that I didn’t have to ship my own tools and materials over from Berlin.

For two days at the very beginning of the project, me and Andy Holtin very quickly built up the workshop, turning an empty white-cube into The Temporary Art Repair Shop. I am also grateful to some of his Ma students, who chipped in and lent us their time in painting our wooden constructions. As mentioned, most of the tools and materials that equipped the Repair Shop came from Holtin’s own studio, with some additional contributions from the wood workshop at the American University’s Art Department.

What greeted the people who ventured into Transformer during my stay there, was a compact but efficient work space, shielded off by a reception counter the way I usually do it. Behind the counter to the left they could see all the objects already handed in stacked on a wall shelf, and to the right they could see several objects in the middle of a process of transformation. the finished objects ended up on display in the store front window. I found the residents of DC very easy and curious. Many people simply popped in to say hi and ask me what I was up to.