Performance in public space, Objekt 19, Vienna, 2017-2018.
Concept, research by Cosima Terrasse, Veronika Hackl, Andrea Visotschnig.

Admirabel is a betting service with over 400 bets placed that encourages participants to make creative bets with alternative stakes.

For this purpose, we imitated the sports betting service Admiral, one of the largest gambling providers in Europe. We opened various pop-up betting shops near their stores, sometimes for several days or weeks.

Usually, passers-by came to our premises expecting to play a game of chance, deceived by the similarity of the facilities… Visitors were encouraged to place bets with their partners, friends, chance acquaintances or complete strangers.

For people who know each other, the bets often related to sensitive topics (e.g: I bet you won’t be able to look after the kids on your own for a day…). Under our moderation as croupier, the players had to set their bets before they both signed our betting slips. The stakes were decided between players (and double-checked by us) based on what felt like a fair exchange to them. Bets were usually placed at, with nosy neighbors as witnesses.

For example, we suggested to the players that they take grains of rice from the “Royal Tiger” rice bag – which we had bought in an Asian supermarket near us – and bet among themselves how many grains were in one hand. We then counted the grains one by one – a strategy for slowing down. Unlike Admiral, where you can place bets in quick succession and get lost in screens and results, we were completely analog and asked people to stay while we counted 378 grains of rice.

Admirabel was also part of the 1st Olympiad of Kreta (Bread Factory Vienna) with a snail race and corresponding bets. (The animals were kept with care – they even multiplied! and were housed in a wooden shelter in nature after the event).

To be experienced at:
Vienna Design Week 2017 Stand 129 Viktor-Adler Markt Brotfabrik Vienna

Awarded by:
Erste Bank, ExtraVALUE Design Award, 2017

Reviewed in:
Schaufenster, Die Presse, Norbert Philipp, 2017
Die Presse, print edition, Harald Gründl, 06.10.2017 The Gap, Zoran Sergievski, Yasmin Vihaus, 2017