ART-BREAKS IN PUBLIC SPACE
In late 2006, the project, SEVEN SCREENS, a platform for digital art projects in pubic space, was established in Munich. Seven light stelae – situated on one of the main arteries of this major German city – are equipped with state of the art LED technology. They create the site-specific context for temporary projects, which probe the most varied interactive, media and artistic concepts in an urban setting. The artistic concept of a variable platform within a clearly defined and permanent framework is what renders the SEVEN SCREENS unique in the world of art in public space. Since their construction, Munich has had a new landmark.
The format of the SEVEN SCREENS places high demands on artists: The individual stele can be interpreted as a fragment (of a vision field), as an autonomous image carrier, as a monument (in the sense of a sculpture) or as an architectural element. As an ensemble the seven stelae refuse to provide the viewer with an ideal vantage point: There is no spot from which the seven image screens can be fitted together to form a whole. It is the viewer’s own perception – insofar as the specific works allow for this – that enable the individual image elements to appear as a closed entity.
Two internationally acclaimed video artists have developed an installation for the SEVEN SCREENS in Munich for 2008: Anouk de Clercq, a Belgian artist, who unites different art forms, such as images, texts, music, animation and architecture, in her video works, and Bjørn Melhus, a Berlin video artist, whose favored materials are the television films and series that influenced his childhood in the 1970s.
On view until April 2008 is the installation Reactive Sparks designed by the creative Berliner studio, ART+COM, which includes Joachim Sauter and Sebastian Peichl. More than 200,000 vehicles are tracked everyday for this installation. Their movement energy is then transformed into a digital reaction, which is discernable as a visual equivalent – as an impulse frequency – on the screens. Every driver participates and is (unintentionally) involved in the reactive light installation. Through the interplay of architecture, an urban context and art, ART+COM created the first reactive installation on the SEVEN SCREENS.
The SEVEN SCREENS are a permanent feature of the OSRAM ART PROJECTS and OSRAM LIGHT CONSULTING developed the technology used in them. The project’s curator is Christian Schoen (director of CIA.IS, Center for Icelandic Art, Reykjavík, and commissioner of the Icelandic pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2007
and 2009.
The following projects have been presented on the SEVEN SCREENS:
Mader/Stublic/Wiermann (Berlin): Reprojected – November 2006 thru April 2007
Haubitz+Zoche (Munich): 2027 (after Fritz Lang’s film METROPOLIS) – April 2007
thru November 2007
Diana Thater (Los Angeles): OFF WITH THEIR HEADS – June 2007 thru July 2007
ART+COM(Berlin): Reactive Sparks – November 2007 thru April 2008
New: the recently published catalogue: “OSRAM ART PROJECTS – SEVEN SCREENS – GALLERY –
COLLECTION 2007“
Additional information at: www.osram.com/art
Press information:
Goldmann Public Relations, Barbara Zmeck, Bruderstraße 5, 80538 Munich
Tel.: +49 (0) 89 / 211 164 14, Fax: +49 (0) 89 / 211 164 29, E-Mail: bzmeck@goldmannpr.de