“im Zeitenwechsel – in changing times”, 2011 – floor drawing
“Im Zeitenwechsel” is a floor drawing made of self-adhesive film, printed and plotted.
Two formally very different units stand out: on the one hand, a sequence of abstract architectural decorative elements and, on the other, a linear, foreshortened floor plan of the building. These two parts are connected by a stylized, spatially illusionistic view of the entrance area of the exhibition building.
It is impossible to grasp the work as a whole, the distant parts are too lost in the depth of the space. Walking through it, looking at the detail and into the distance, is thus an essential aspect of its reception.
The House of Arts formed the center of my explorations for this exhibition, as it exemplifies the relationship between German and Czech architecture in the period before the founding of the Czech Republic in 1918 and the integration of the Czech Republic into the Socialist Confederation after the Second World War.
The house was built in 1911 by the Viennese architect Herrmann Reick on behalf of the Brno Artists’ Association, which was dominated by the Germans at the time. It remained undisturbed even after the founding of the Czech Republic in 1918 and the rise of functionalism. It was only after the Second World War, when the building was badly damaged, that its ‘German’ façade was replaced by a ‘Czech’ one by the architect Bohuslav Fuchs and was thus able to continue to exist.
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