DLO (Dead Letter Department)
2025
Part of groupshow “Riddles for Longing” at Salon am Moritzplatz, Berlin, DE, 2025 and “Flimsy Fictions” at Atelier Bardaf, Brussels, BE, 2025.
With Elvo Axt, Theresa Zwerske, Paul Gérard, Maria Martini, Mika Schwarz, Paloma Bouhana, Meghan Bruinen and Maximilian Schröder.
Installation comprising of 10 plexiglass boxes with envelopes made from waxed paper and sealing wax.
“The puzzle purse originated in Victorian times as a charming novelty—a keepsake and a personal token of love, appreciation, and devotion. Its magic lay in the intimacy of the experience when unfolding the purse, layer by layer, revealing a message imbued with tenderness.
Such affection however loses part of its allure when the letter fails to arrive at its intended destination. Within this tragic loss, the letter itself becomes an object suspended in time, a ghost of intention, forever trapped in a state of unfulfilled promise. Without a recipient, the message exists only as potential—its connection severed, a haunting symbol of impermanence.
This is where DLO (Dead Letter Office) steps in. As a form of preservation, DLO acts not only as a place where lost mail is stored but as an institution that recovers and safeguards the echoes of missed connections. In this way, DLO functions as a recovery enterprise—a space dedicated to ensuring that even the most forgotten or misplaced communications are not entirely lost to time. DLO serves as a reminder that the message still holds value, even when the physical connection to the recipient is broken. Retention and Recovery— we transform undelivered letters from fragments of loss into testaments of persistence, ensuring that at least in spirit, their message endures.
-Doris Hardeman, 2025
