Lars Kaiser, a 35-year-old artist from Potsdam, said he came up
with the novel idea to give art lovers the chance to buy the inexpensive art
samples from vending machines around the clock. He has installed about 100 of
the uniquely decorated art vending machines in public buildings and on exterior
walls throughout Germany.
The refurbished vending machines once sold
cigarettes, chewing gum or condoms in the 1960s and 1970s. "We wanted to
get art into places that don't have anything to do with art so that it would
become a part of everyday life," Kaiser said. The one-off sculptures,
collages and paintings fit into small boxes which the machines sell. They have
been created by about 140 professional artists.
The vending machines are also
pieces of art themselves in a wide array of colors and styles. "The
artists are very creative," he said. "The boxes contain every kind of
art you find in a larger format elsewhere." Kaiser said the machines did
not allow customers to select work by particular artists so that they would be
exposed to something new.
