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Soft Hostility
Šejla Daudbašić

This installation reimagines a familiar yet disturbing element of urban space: metal spikes used to prevent people—often those experiencing homelessness—from resting or gathering. These hostile architectural features are designed to exclude, to say you are not welcome.
In this room, the spikes are hand-made from soft fabric and filled with cushioning material. They cover the floor, inviting visitors to walk across them. The aggressive visual remains, but the physical threat is gone—transformed into something tactile, approachable, and even vulnerable.
By stepping onto these soft spikes, each visitor becomes part of a quiet protest. A protest against inhumane design. Against public spaces that push people away. Against the normalization of exclusion.
This is not just a space to be seen, but to be felt.