windows 97

hundreds of windows framing partial views

Transparency is ultimately lost in endless reflections and interferences. 300 white-painted window frames from demolished houses, in the lowered oval of the Schottentor passage, placed on the grass and anchored with wires, are intended to provoke. The viewer recognises that all he sees in windows, that are really a symbol of prospects, are just other windows and not the picture he hoped to see. This challenges the seemingly unobstructed view in repetition, as transparency is ultimately lost in endless reflections and interferences. The exposed window also refers to an absence: the dwelling. For despite all the fascination of bodiless virtual space, we must not forget to lend quality to what remains when the power fails. Seeing ahead, not seeing through.

Die "Scheinbarkeit" gehört selbst zur Realität: sie ist eine Form ihres Seins: d. h. in einer Welt, wo es kein Sein gibt, muß durch den Schein erst eine gewisse berechenbare Welt identischer Fälle geschaffen werden.
                                                                                    Friedrich Nietzsche

Regarding the dream of the “networked society” it was obvious that one can look through the window but the body will never pass through it.

Installation: 398 windows connected by wire
Location: Schottentor Vienna, 1997

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