COMING SOON...


A former shopping center called “am Inselplatz” served as the starting point for exploring the idea of light and architecture in the city of Jena, Germany. Opened only one month before the wall came down and now empty for several years, this immense entity seems to have reached a profound state of invisibility. Covered by graffiti, posters, wild plants and construction materials; the place constantly portraits the failure of its own structure. And thus becomes a place deprived of any potential use due to its own nature and its advanced state of neglect.

In the back of the building four light spots hanging from the façade were found, pointing to a previously used advertisement wall, but today there is nothing to be illuminated. So was triggered the question of how a small action can make a whole space change and in someway unveil how alive a structure can be.

For this intervention the entire wall was ‘cleaned’ by painting it completely in white and the four light spots were lit again, using a nearby street lamp as the power supply. For the duration of the exhibition the wall became an empty lit screen, a place for imagination, a portrayal of the state of the building, of this constant wait, when everything is there for something to happen but it actually never does.

Still, the structure waits, for something that perhaps is coming soon…


+ This work was part of the exhibition Wackelkontakt (Loose Contact, Illuminating the Public Sphere) in the city of Jena, Germany. A collaboration between the MFA of Public Art and New Artistic Strategies, Bauhaus Unversität in Weimar, Germany; Jenoptik AG and the Jenaer Kunstverein e.V. February 2-17, 2007.

2 comments:

Sabs said...

Definitivamente el edificio y yo nos conectamos, leer sobre este trabajo y ver las fotos me conmueve. Me recuerda que siempre es bueno ver más allá, ver dentro de uno, que la cabeza cree historias donde ya las hay o no hay nada, que los espacios en blanco, no se queden de ese color, hacer un poquito de historia ya sea en un lugar o en las personas, a través de la imaginación, através de nuestra unica visión y persepción de las cosas.

objet perdu said...

Absolutely amazing idea and work. Congratulations.

PS I'm trying to contact you, can't enter your website.