Breathing is a business like everything else… 2014

Tatort Paderborn - Phänomen Fußgängerzone

Public Art Projekt, curated by Florian Matzner
29th May - 7st September 2014 in Paderborn

two-part installation

Hollow on the east side in front of the crypt:
mobile sculpture in the shape of two oversized lungs; thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), regulated bellows machine, processed sounds of a horse breathing; approx. 12 x 4.8m, height: approx. 0.7–1.2m

Subterranean parking garage, St. Vincenz Hospital:
regulated 2-channel video projection, processed sounds of a horse breathing; projection 1: approx. 7 x 2.4m; projection 2: approx. 4.4 x 2.4m

 

The concept is based on the idea of the physical gesture of breathing processes:
In my imagination, the element of air is the immaterial connection between the two spatial coordinates of the underground car park and the cathedral. The canal systems, entrances and exits and the invisible spaces beneath the city are metaphorical "breathing tubes" that transport air through the city in horizontal and vertical axes of movement and flow. In addition, the cathedral square has been a cemetery since the Middle Ages. Cable shafts and ducts practically run past and through the bones of the dead.

The sculpture's visual metaphor is a large "horse's lung" that moves in a very slow movement of inflating and deflating air - like breathing - and sculpturises the imaginary transport of air beneath the city. In a closed circuit, the gesture INHALING - EXHALING initiates in the video installation in the underground car park and proceeds to the cathedral basin. In a large-format 2-channel projection, it shows a horse's body rolling on the ground, lying down, standing up and lying down again. This rolling loops as an infinite up and down movement on 2 wall surfaces next to each other - once in a half-total and once as a close up - in different perspectives and speeds. It refers to a very short scene from the film "Andrej Rublyov" by Andrei Tarkovsky from 1966 and focuses on both the strength and the vulnerability of the animal.

Both the "breathing" of the sculpture and the movements in the video installation are timed to the chiming of the cathedral bells. The intervention in the underground car park and at the cathedral can be seen day and night over the entire course of the project "Tatort Paderborn" - the "breathing" is therefore not interrupted.

Elvira Hufschmid (Berlin, Vancouver): video editing, coordination of the exhibition
Ael Aimé Ezekiel Klein (Wien): coordination and planning of the filming, camera, colour editing
Joost van der Velden (Berlin): planning, developement, production of the sculpture
Udo Treimetten / TRIACS GmbH (Föhren/ Trier): video technics and installation
Stefan Geerlings/ no problaim GmbH (Wien): production of the sculpture
Kerstin Schulte (Berlin): photography, grafic design, model making
Markus Lang (Berlin): audio engineering and -editing
Nikolaus Wolters (Berlin): electronics, programming
Nils Kortekamp (Gestüt Bon Homme, Werder): support video shoot with horse
Hartmut Welke / Pneumatik Berlin GmbH PTM (Berlin): technical mentoring

The work is supported by Erzbischöfliches Diözesanmuseum Paderborn
Dr. Christoph Stiegemann: director