Intervention in a souvenir shop: postcards, Christmas decoration, fridge magnets, key rings

TENTACLE MEMORIES is an intervention created specifically for the Biennale für Freiburg 3 that takes Freiburg’s symbolic identity as “the south of Germany” as a starting point to explore the romanticized and exoticized idea of "the south" and the semiotics of the picturesque.

The work reimagines classic tourist imagery through a non-anthropocentric lens. In collaboration with an image-generating AI, a series of postcards were produced where human presence is erased—replaced by tentacled creatures, alien forms, and plant-like beings that inhabit familiar landmarks of Freiburg.
Subtly placed in a real souvenir shop at Münsterplatz, alongside specially made souvenirs, the work acts as a glitch in the cycle of tourist consumption. It playfully disrupts stereotypical notions of place and identity while raising deeper questions about overtourism, the commodification of travel, and our relationship with the unfamiliar.