31.03.–05.06.1994

Installed painting or on the importance of the lavatory in the Museum of Modern Art

Diverse works ("vertical sections") which have been carried out create an interface between painting, sculpture, and architecture. In the works, the means representing the plan of a cross-section in the exact scale of 1:1 in constructional substances is utilised. In this manner, a certain architectural situation is presented via painting as catalyst; the consequences of the situation as picture would remain concealed without incorporating colour or utilising surface. The specific interior steps back. The view is directed towards the treated tectonics of the space.

In more recent "vertical sections" I integrate silicone mass into the tectonics of the space in the painting approach. In this manner, layer by layer, a second skin is created which, once hardened, can be removed and presented at another site freed from the original spatial situation.

For this painting approach I make a choice, in the specific spaces, according to my concept "The installed painting or on the importance of the lavatory in the Museum of Modern Art". In this context, the art-institutional framework is relevant. Lavatories, administrative rooms, and the exhibition space is considered.

The paradox of artificiality (of the institution) and usability (of the architectural infrastructure) is intensified: the lavatory as a permanent sculpture within the exhibition operation simultaneously represents an architectural factor defined by function, form, concept, and dimension.

In the near future, further "sections" are to be worked into various museums (this cycle originates from the concept: "To the museum administration"). The silicone paintings taken and collected, as a topology, will be aligned to a picture - an overall painting - of sanitary installations in museums.

Sery C.

Photo: Katrin Schilling