Stian Ådlandsvik, Lutz-Rainer Müller, Mark Pepper, Thomas Woll

With their four week spatially comprehensive installation at the Kunstverein and their public sculpture in the city center, the artists open up the dialogue on Dortmund.

How does an interior space become art in public space? The artist duos Müller/Ådlandsvik and Pepper/Woll answer this question in their exhibition at the Dortmunder Kunstverein. The interweaving of the semi-public art space with the public space of the city of Dortmund occurs through the opening of the exhibition space into the outdoor space. The space, which can now be entered by anyone passing by, thematizes the interfaces between public and private spaces. Reflection on their possibilities and functions is a central element of the exhibition and is to be carried out not only by the artists, but also by the visitor.
It is a closed, but at the same time open, public space that possesses the characteristics of a private one. This in itself is not only a shelter - wall and roof - for the visitor, but is itself under protection, in that its most important functions are protected from destruction.

As a result, the space becomes dysfunctional: heating, switches, ventilation, as well as electrical outlets are protected from destruction or misuse and thus de-functionalized. Only a sculpture placed in the room, a fully functional parking ticket machine mounted on a stone, offers the possibility to actively use what is in the room. A parking ticket stands for the purchase of a space that is private for a limited time and thus symbolizes the interfaces that the exhibition addresses. Furthermore, the exhibition space becomes a free space for the visitor; it is not a space that excludes, but rather grants access to all, yet it does not become a usable space, since it is robbed of all its properties - except as a protective space. The space itself becomes an object. Deprived of all its original functionality, it thus represents exactly the opposite of what the sculpture project ‘Stein mit Vollausstattung’ aims to become for public space. The project makes an unusable object - a stone - functional!
The artists exhibit an in-between space that can be assumed as free space - how this is finally understood and used by the visitors is solely in their hands.

The second part of the project is the realization of the sculpture 'Stein mit Vollausstattung', which is planned as a participatory project for the public space in Dortmund's city center. It is a unique experiment in the center of a metropolitan space that uses wind and sun to generate energy and make it available free of charge via 230-volt safety sockets. .

Text: Linda Schröer

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