Thomas Krempke Fotografie

The Kiosk

"The Kiosk" is a work that examines the role of the portrait and places it in a clearly defined social context. In a bar/kiosk in my neighbourhood, I took portraits of the regulars (people on the margins of society) over the course of a few weeks. The work was then exhibited and published in a regular gallery context, and then together with the people portrayed in the kiosk itself. The Kiosk project is a work between art and intervention in the context of the gentrification of the city and a neighbourhood.

A duck on which you can ride for a Swiss franc, a caravan as an improvised sausage stand, tables and a dozen chairs that are even occupied in the rain thanks to scaffolding. For years I've been buying my cigarettes here, sometimes a little whisky in the evening, and during my miserably failed attempt to quit smoking, it had been chewing gum. I've seen the same faces here for years. People discuss with each other, argue, keep quiet, drink and smoke - and some just come to read the newspaper. When I come home late at night, they're still sitting there, and when I have to catch the train early in the morning, which admittedly doesn't happen often, the chairs are already occupied, one person might be drinking coffee and another is still on their way home with one last beer in front of him.
People here know each other by name and are aware of who is in hospital and when. They've generally lived in the neighborhood for a long time, have seen how the tram has turned around Röschibachplatz and how one pub after another has been closed down. One has become a trendy pub, another a fully automated hotel and some have just disappeared. And so now people sit here, in front of the kiosk, which would hardly win a design award, and meet around the plastic tables: "Emil, another one!" In winter, they sit inside on the sofa or at the bar - there's plenty of room even then, at least most of the time.
The people here rant and politicise, loud and clear. People don't mince their words here - that would cap the climax. And sometimes things get heated when a conspiracy theorist tries to convince everyone that they are reading the wrong newspaper. People know each other here and appreciate each other, or they don't, in which case it's: "Now that one is back!" What's more, the coffee costs less than elsewhere, and the beer and wine... That's also important for everyone who frequents the place, from "people's representatives to lemon squeezers". In this city, there are fewer and fewer places like Emil's kiosk on Röschibachplatz; they are full of stories, even those that are never told.

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