This body of work began when I visited a fabric shop called Kumasch for the first time. Kumasch is an adaptation of the Turkish word kumaž (which means fabric) into a German sounding word. The shop is located in an old storage building directly by the railway and is often visited by fashion students from all the schools in Berlin. The shop is organized into fabrics types but also a range of heated and unheated rooms, by which it is possible to imagine that they co-ordinated the carpet colours accordingly. I mainly photographed in the first room. When I think of the shop, the heating system is one of its principal characteristics, metal tubes hang from the ceiling expelling warm air without any kind of filter, switching on and off every once in a while. By the counter there's a radio, which one immedialty notices because as one passes it by, it untunes. Close to the radio there are always two or three tulip like tea glasses. Right behind the counter there is a door with a mirror on it. I am not allowed to go in there, as it is the administration room. Though I could see it from the outside. There isn't much apart of a bright wooden closet, a round table and some chairs. The floor is covered of linoleum. The first time I saw the room, the owner and an older employee were sat at the table eating bread and drinking coffee. Working in the shop there are two men and a trainee. Usually the owner comes later and spends most of the time talking on the phone. Unlike the other staff, he always wears a cap. Between them, they mainly speak Turkish, rarely do they use German. I cannot understand Turkish but I can see by the way they talk and laugh that they are having a good time together. The younger employee acts flirtatiously, especially if there is a girl around. Most of the time he talks with a smile on his lips, busily measuring and cutting the fabrics that someone has chosen to buy. We get along with each other. |