DER BALKON
Installation
Weimer, 2009
On the front facade of the Elephant hotel in Weimar, a second balcony, identical to the one that already exists, was constructed and installed. The doubling of an architectural element of the building, aimed on the distortion of the strong symbolic character of the original balcony, which was part of the new design of the hotel after its reconstruction in 1938 by Adolf Hitler. The Elephant Hotel, a historical building in Weimar, has been a place of representing power for many politicians. Its architectural transformations and also the various ways in which it functioned within different political situations reveal layers of history, are imprinted on the facade of the building. The copy of the balcony has been constructed as a 1:1 identical mockup, from light materials such as styrofoam and polyester. The replicated balcony can be perceived from the distance as an exact replica of the original, triggering a defamiliarizing effect by virtue of the loss of symmetry on the main front of the historic building and thus the impairment of its iconic image.
reproduced for KUNSTFEST WEIMAR 2014
Location: Hotel Elephant, Weimar
Dimensions: height 150cm x length 415cm x width 160cm
Various materials : sheet iron, styrofoam,polyester
photos by: Sofia Dona, Loukas Bartatilas, Thomas Mueller