This is not a commercial. Billboard/Billding

On Zurichs Langstrasse everyone has to do their thing, make moneyand we had to earn our daily bread too. You pay the bill, we paint the board: Billboard. We painted ads of all kindsfor a fee. We placed a commercial Billboard (20112015) on the roof deck of Esther Eppsteins message salon, a former artists space. What used to be the Perla-Mode building now houses a chain restaurant for vegetarians. It took a while for the concept to catch on: people were skeptical. But then business picked up, and weand otherspainted everything from love letters and breakup notes, political statements, gossip and rumors to graffiti and street art and even tobacco ads. Business was good, so we expanded. The sculpture became a billding. Living offand behinda billboard. This is not a commercial addresses questions of economic models and strategies for artists to survive in todays neoliberal market structure. As painters, we procured work for ourselves through this participatory sculpture. We dont paint BMWs in Veli & Amos style: the brand is part and parcel of our sculpture, our postcards, our paintings and now our book. The point of the book is not only to document our billboard project, but also to keep it as up-to date as possiblewith ads. Veli & Amos