FALSE FRIENDS

(FALSCHE FREUNDE)

2023
Location: Schleißheimerstr. 31, 80333 Munich, Germany
Technique: facade paints, brushes.

A mural about consumption habits and excesses in the context of a global climate and energy crisis.
Conceptualisedt, drawn and painted late Sommer 2023 in Munich´s Maxvorstadt.
Kindly funded by Kulturreferat Munich and Bezirksauschuss Nr. 3

You can't do without consumption.
However, many things are consumed even though there is no real need for them.
What is really good for me?
And for everyone? Can individual actions provide an effective response to climate and environmental crises?
Thinking about your own consumption and its limits is a form of activism that is accessible to everyone.

Playing with the strong visual contrast between the giant products depicted as happy characters and the small, unhappy people bent under their weight, the mural aims to suggest - especially to the new generation - that a simple life, a life that is not subject to compulsive and unnecessary consumption, fashion, appearance and social competition, can be the better choice.

Shopping and consumption are seen as something that makes life easier: We create an identity and seek security in things like clothes, shoes, the cocktail bar we choose for the evening, the car we drive...
Status symbols are widely accepted and invested in.

Disappointment, dissatisfaction and feelings of inferiority are the downside of striving to own things as a means of achieving happiness.
Indeed, a surreal vicious circle of consumerism, in which our possessions dictate our choices in life, keeps us running to buy the next item on the list.
From the latest mobile phone, usually intended to replace a perfectly good but older model, to trendy but low-quality (and human rights-violating) fashion, to the energy drink made from German groundwater with a few cheap ingredients and a clever marketing campaign.

Does this make any sense? 
Superfluous things are seen as necessary for a fulfilled life. This puts a huge strain on our own productivity, we get super stressed, it never ends.
Have our consumption habits become a burden?