Winter / Hörbelt
27 Oct - 08 Dec 2012
WINTER / HÖRBELT
27 October - 8 December 2012
On the occasion of Art Weekend Munich 2012, Nusser & Baumgart is exhibiting a new work by the Frankfurt-based artist duo Winter/Hörbelt. The artists, who have been working together since 1993, will present an installation that encompasses the entire space, and that lies at the interface between sculpture and visitor-initiated performance.
Winter/Hörbelt became a well-known artist team in the mid-1990s through their sculptural structures which they constructed from mineral water crates, and which they installed at various venues around the globe. The assembled sculptures are always walk-through, thereby inviting visitors to experience the space for themselves. Immersion is, in all their works, an important instrument employed by the artists to provide visitors with an alternative view of their environment. The bottle crates, in contrast to their prior perception, form a new, synthetic space - a new experiential world for visitors. The mass of plastic which newly shapes the surroundings first becomes visible through this transformation. The artists’ focus is essentially on the everyday objects that surround us. They make use of industrial mass-produced products which they compose into new perceptual territory, presented for the most part in public spaces. For the room installation created for the gallery, Winter & Hörbelt resorted to a new material: Bonnell innersprings. The thermal-electric inner springs are still a classic element that is used in most beds, and are characterized by their long-lived resiliency. The artists first created a work from this material in China in 2011: numerous interconnected spaces that begin to undulate when entered by visitors. The gallery space at Nusser & Baumgart will be filled with the same inner spring cells. Similar to a labyrinth, visitors must navigate their way through the space, which in turn sets individual ripples in motion, and which then, through interconnection, merge into a large-scale composition. The inner springs, which were taken from normal mattresses, were newly formed for the objects and combine to create a dense pattern that covers the walls of the gallery spaces. Upon entering the installation, this pattern is set in motion and a feeling of indistinctness arises in the previously systematically organized scheme. At the same time, the undulations pass into the body of the viewer and add to the visual effects through physical sensations. The more visitors there are in the space simultaneously, the more intense the sensation. Through the collective experience, connections are established between spaces and people, without directly linking them. The prerequisite of participation provides this work by Winter/Hörbelt with a performative quality. Visitors are inclined to closely explore the space and its richly varied effects and playfully come up with various compositions, thereby consciously “performing”.
Text (excerpt): Dana Weschke, translation: A. Forman
27 October - 8 December 2012
On the occasion of Art Weekend Munich 2012, Nusser & Baumgart is exhibiting a new work by the Frankfurt-based artist duo Winter/Hörbelt. The artists, who have been working together since 1993, will present an installation that encompasses the entire space, and that lies at the interface between sculpture and visitor-initiated performance.
Winter/Hörbelt became a well-known artist team in the mid-1990s through their sculptural structures which they constructed from mineral water crates, and which they installed at various venues around the globe. The assembled sculptures are always walk-through, thereby inviting visitors to experience the space for themselves. Immersion is, in all their works, an important instrument employed by the artists to provide visitors with an alternative view of their environment. The bottle crates, in contrast to their prior perception, form a new, synthetic space - a new experiential world for visitors. The mass of plastic which newly shapes the surroundings first becomes visible through this transformation. The artists’ focus is essentially on the everyday objects that surround us. They make use of industrial mass-produced products which they compose into new perceptual territory, presented for the most part in public spaces. For the room installation created for the gallery, Winter & Hörbelt resorted to a new material: Bonnell innersprings. The thermal-electric inner springs are still a classic element that is used in most beds, and are characterized by their long-lived resiliency. The artists first created a work from this material in China in 2011: numerous interconnected spaces that begin to undulate when entered by visitors. The gallery space at Nusser & Baumgart will be filled with the same inner spring cells. Similar to a labyrinth, visitors must navigate their way through the space, which in turn sets individual ripples in motion, and which then, through interconnection, merge into a large-scale composition. The inner springs, which were taken from normal mattresses, were newly formed for the objects and combine to create a dense pattern that covers the walls of the gallery spaces. Upon entering the installation, this pattern is set in motion and a feeling of indistinctness arises in the previously systematically organized scheme. At the same time, the undulations pass into the body of the viewer and add to the visual effects through physical sensations. The more visitors there are in the space simultaneously, the more intense the sensation. Through the collective experience, connections are established between spaces and people, without directly linking them. The prerequisite of participation provides this work by Winter/Hörbelt with a performative quality. Visitors are inclined to closely explore the space and its richly varied effects and playfully come up with various compositions, thereby consciously “performing”.
Text (excerpt): Dana Weschke, translation: A. Forman