Private routine in busy enviroments

Stille Örtchen, a project by Daniel Schemmel and Julian Voit, deliberately shifts a familiar symbol of privacy into the center of public life. By placing a toilet — traditionally associated with retreat and intimacy — in busy urban environments, the work creates a quiet but pointed disruption within everyday surroundings.

At the center of the images, the protagonist calmly goes about his private routine while the public world continues to move around him. This contrast forms the core tension of the project: what is normally hidden becomes visible, and what is considered inappropriate in public space is presented without dramatization. The work does not rely on spectacle, but on the subtle discomfort created by the situation itself.

Stille Örtchen functions as a provocative artistic intervention that questions established social norms and our collective understanding of public versus private behavior. Toilets typically symbolize protection, withdrawal, and intimacy — their relocation into loud, exposed environments challenges these associations and gently pushes viewers to reflect on their own comfort zones.

At the same time, the project touches on broader questions of urbanization and the increasing scarcity of truly private spaces in densely populated cities. By highlighting which everyday actions are socially accepted in public — and which remain taboo — the work opens a wider conversation about how we use, regulate, and psychologically navigate shared urban space.