The humorous video installation Passierschein A39 is presented on a rear-projection screen alongside an advertising display at the Nordfriedhof subway kiosk in Munich. The video installation evokes a quintessential German registration office, where the magic of bureaucracy unfolds. As passers-by walk past the kiosk, they are addressed directly by the installation, drawing them into its absurd administrative world.
Through the escalating absurdity of the monologue and the increasingly contorted facial expressions of the bureaucrat behind the counter, the video amplifies the maddening intricacies of navigating German bureaucracy.

The advertising display above the video reinforces the illusion of an administrative waiting area, featuring exaggerated announcements inspired by the queue management screens used to call waiting numbers and direct visitors to different counters. Passers-by become applicants themselves, drawn into a quintessentially German bureaucratic encounter. By addressing them directly, the installation immerses its audience in a highly stylised cycle of administrative madness.

Concept and realisation: Janina Totzauer and Sebastian Quast
Actor: Tommy Schwimmer