Patrick Borchers

At the start of his residence period at Lichtenberg Studios, Patrick Borchers first explored his new temporary living and working environment by bike with no fixed goal in mind. The idyllic-looking ‘Victoriastadt’ quarter soon became the focal point of his investigations: again and again, he observed the young fathers and mothers here who lived in the renovated historical buildings and were often pushing prams through the streets.
In parallel, the Falkenberg animals’ home at the opposite end of the district in Hohenschönhausen also arose his interest – particularly the dogs who live there and are “offered” to families on the Internet.
Borchers expanded the dogs’ online presences by making drawings based on the portraits of the dogs on the website of the animals’ home; he then mounted these drawings in Ikea frames and put them up in public spaces around ‘Victoriastadt’ in order to encourage people to adopt these dogs. The hope here was that dogs and families – and the two opposite ends of Lichtenberg too – would be brought together.

October, 2012