Everyone has one: a T-shirt with a text on it. With these T-shirts we can show our identity to the world. Whether you’re a communist, Beatles fan, a book collector or you hate cilantro, you can always find a T-shirt online that fits your (maybe not so) unique character, hobby or philosophy.

T-shirt conversations is a performance in which buren (Oshin Albrecht and Melissa Mabesoone) bring different dialogues based on T-shirt quotes and statements they encounter on the streets, in shops and online. The conversations pose questions on the invasiveness of these texts and the way certain slogans are embedded in our daily life experience. It’s hard not to read these voices and once you did they’re in your brain.

Albrecht and Mabesoone are curious how and why these messages are brought into the world. Who is this message for and what dialogues could come forth when these statements start to interact? By taking the messages seriously, they try to answer those questions.

Concept and performance - buren (Oshin Albrecht and Melissa Mabesoone)

About buren

buren is a collective founded by Oshin Albrecht and Melissa Mabesoone. Through performance, video, text, objects, photography and installation they navigate ideas of community, domesticity, gender, (art) history and neoliberal fantasies. These subjects are approached with a sense of irony and humor as well as a future-oriented imagination.