Peles Duo

mess and memory

A Stage for Reminiscences and Transformations

Peles Duo—the creative collaboration of Katharina Stöver (b. Gießen, 1982) and Barbara Wolff (b. Făgăraș, Romania, 1980)—began with the opening of an illegal bar in Frankfurt’s red-light district. The duo’s name is a reference to Peleș Castle, the erstwhile summer residence of Romania’s royal family and now a tourism hotspot and Hollywood movie backdrop, whose interiors are an eclectic mix of pieces of furniture and works of art. The two artists take inspiration from this imbrication of eras in the history of styles and use it as the point of departure for their process of sampling and quotation, deliberately blurring the distinction between original and copy.

mess and memory is the first extensive monograph on the Berlin-based artist duo’s output. Released on the occasion of their twentieth anniversary, it features an archival overview of all exhibitions, site-specific commissioned works, and projects since 2005. With essays by Hana Janečková and Kirsty Bell, and a conversation between Kyla McDonald and the artists.