Abb. Benjamin Busch
Hintertreppen, or “rear stairs,” are peculiarities of late 19th and early 20thcentury architecture. As the middle classes became increasingly able to express their elaborate lifestyles via architecture, they became interested in removing the substructure of their existence from direct view: namely, the servants. In various large-scale dwellings, Hintertreppen (also called “servant stairs”) were built, becoming places of simultaneous exchange and labor, of secrets – but also exclusion. Located in a Berlin Hintertreppe, the site-specific work Stufen (Steps), by Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli, explores this special social and community space.
Artists: Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli