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  • Twice a year, the people of Karlsruhe—­a city in the south of Germany—take the things that do not matter to them anymore, down from the basements, out on to the streets. The next day, pub­lic ser­vants show up to collect these objects and take them away. The few hours between the disposal of old belongings and the arrival of the gar­bage men are when the hunt happens for retrievers in search of all kinds of things. These people may be inflicted with youth, poverty or curiosity.

    Martin Borst and Johannes Tolk en­gaged in a re-evaluation of things that are perceived to be worthless. Their main interest is in the mani­fested knowledge that rests in dis­carded books, magazines, adver­tise­ments and printed materials. By creating new combinations of old materials through reduction and edi­ting, they attempt to trans­form this archive of rejects into an accessible format.

    Borst and Tolk only use raw materials gleaned from piles of un­wan­ted thrown-aways. They add no­thing, besides a point of view.

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