BOTIN – The Performative Archive of Unsent Messages

From 11 to 14 September 2025, an unusual space at Cologne’s Großmarkt will become a stage for what has so far remained unsaid. BOTIN – a mixed-abled production by Un-Label, directed by Philine Velhagen – invites people to anonymously submit their never-sent messages.

Whether it’s a furious rant to an ex, an apology to a friend (three years too late), a message to a deceased father, or a desperate plea in the housing crisis – messages that were too angry, too vulnerable, too late, or simply never finished find their first and final appearance in BOTIN. Not at the ex-husband’s front door, but on Cologne’s Großmarkt site, amidst market stalls, lorries and heaps of rubbish. Here, a temporary archive of unsent messages takes shape.

An experienced team of archivists and artistic researchers receives each message, sorts, interprets and transforms it – giving a voice to what has so far remained unheard. Visitors become the stand-in recipients of countless different messages – perhaps even one closer to them than they might expect.

For before visitors are allowed into the heart of the archive – the sorting office – their own part of the work begins. Everyday baggage must be set aside: everything that prevents us from truly listening. In a performative act, hastily typed messages, voice notes, personal stories or the last social media post are collectively dismantled. Only this personal archiving process opens the way to the sorting office – and creates space for what really matters: the unheard.

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