Willst du mit uns gehen? (2017)

During a three-month residency at basis e.V. in Frankfurt, Seah encountered a city known for its financial institutions and international commerce, but also marked by less visible forms of displacement. In the winter evenings, along shopping streets lined with luxury boutiques, people experiencing homelessness sheltered beneath blankets. Their bodies were almost entirely concealed, leaving only the surfaces of the blankets visible against the grey streets.

The residency took place in 2017, when migration and refugee policies were prominent subjects of public debate in Germany. Beyond questions of border crossings and national hospitality, Seah became interested in what happens after arrival: how people find shelter, establish relationships and negotiate their place within an unfamiliar city. Conversations with a local organisation supporting homeless people revealed further tensions between the need for temporary refuge and efforts to regulate the appearance and use of public space.

Elsewhere in Frankfurt, neighbourhoods were undergoing rapid transformation. Community cafés and familiar meeting places faced displacement as new residential developments emerged. Older building façades sometimes remained standing while entirely new structures took shape behind them. One community-run café, threatened by redevelopment, became a point of reference for Seah's observations of gentrification. The presence of artists and cultural activities within changing neighbourhoods also raised uncomfortable questions about their possible role in making such areas attractive to subsequent investment.

As a temporary resident himself, Seah experienced another form of disorientation. Language, streets and everyday systems remained unfamiliar, making him conscious of how much settling into a new environment depends upon access, knowledge and the willingness of others to offer assistance. Yet his temporary position as an invited artist was distinct from the circumstances of those without secure housing or legal status.

For the exhibition, Seah collected second-hand blankets from flea markets and transformed them through painting, embroidery and sculptural interventions. Animal motifs and observations of the surrounding city appeared across their surfaces, including a view from the community café towards an apartment building under construction. Some blankets were combined with wheels and other found objects, becoming mobile soft sculptures that could be rearranged, carried or wrapped around the body.

Two blankets incorporated fragments of gold and silver leaf, transferred through mesh and accompanied by the embroidered words Me Too and Same. These phrases suggest a moment of recognition between individuals whose circumstances may be very different. Rather than claiming that their experiences are identical, the works invite consideration of a shared vulnerability: the possibility of becoming unfamiliar, displaced or dependent upon another person's kindness.

During winter, Seah arranged the blankets into human-like forms and temporarily placed them at bus stops, underground stations, building entrances and street corners. The resulting photographs were installed in small formats throughout the exhibition, requiring visitors to search carefully for their presence. Their near-invisibility echoed the uncertain visibility of people occupying the margins of the city.

The materials and methods of production also reflected the surrounding urban environment. Construction mesh, commonly used to cover buildings and separate spaces, became a means of transferring paint and metallic leaf onto fabric. As the mesh was removed, the transferred images broke into fragmented traces. Strips cut from election posters were arranged around the exhibition walls, forming a subtle boundary that connected individual movement and displacement to wider political structures.

The exhibition's title, Willst du mit uns gehen? — Do you want to come with us? — proposes a simple invitation. In a city shaped by movement, development and competing claims to space, the possibility of belonging may begin not with the crossing of a border, but with the willingness of someone already there to make room for another.

Keywords: #Migration #Displacement #UrbanTransformation #Gentrification #TemporaryShelter #Belonging #MaterialCulture #SiteSpecific

Exhibition Space   l   G Floor

Exhibition Space   l   Basement

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