Sculpture in front of WerkP2

Shortly before WerkP2 was completed, I used the old foundry once more to create a final work here. The first case of art-works. A tribute to the transmutation of the building and the surrounding area: the rededication of a historic workplace for heavy industry as a modern life centre for people of the virtual age.
The transformation of the heavy into the light. The past, the heavy: steel. Rigidity, weight, monumentality. The future: virtuality. Communication, flow of movement, the loss of localisation: modern (digital) media.

 

This transmutation took the form of the landmark created by the large sculpture in the pond in front of the kunsthalle. Weighing 17.2 tonnes, the work made of corten steel and four television monitors appears to float with ease on the water’s surface. The heavy becomes the light

Intuitive was the process that gave rise to the contours, produced the angles. But how could the model that had taken shape be translated into monumental reality? For two weeks, I conferred with metal fabricators and structural engineers about materiality, material thickness and design. It took another two months’ hard work to build and weld the sculpture with the aid of several helpers. Today, rust cloaks the corten steel: nature art. Media art. Architecture art. The “triad of the art and media district”. The sculpture unites them.’

 

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© Bernd Reiter, Zollstockgürtel 67, 50969 Köln