Category Archives: Frankfurt am Main / Germany

AT THE HOUSE / IN THE GARDEN: PHOTO

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PHOTOGRAPHS and VIDEOSQUENCE: AT THE HOUSE / IN THE GARDEN
The work shows a section of the architecture of the former Botanical Institute adjacent to the Botanical Garden in Frankfurt am Main. The tree of the gods (Ailanthus altissima), which is part of the picture, invasively colonises the vacant spaces of large cities as a neophyte, including Frankfurt. In this place, the tree close to the house becomes a sign of vacancy and wasted potential uses.
The motif shows a small yet characteristic part of the building façade of the Kramer Building: the reinforced concrete structure clad in yellow clinker bricks, ventilation openings and windows closed with screens and wooden panels. The architectural elements photographed from the front create an abstract (pastel/grey) surface grid. Only the moving branches of the tree and the changing incidence of light and shadows make the image recognisable as a moving image.
In its naturalistic colourfulness and size, the video relates directly to the current presentation space. The movement of the light and the tree creates the duration.
Two photographs taken during the video production process were edited for large-format prints. The first photograph shows the motif before the sunlight hits the façade. The second photograph shows the façade in sunlight. In the photographs, the abstraction in the greyscale draws attention to the differentiated formal structure of the motif, to the surfaces and lines that are shaped differently in the two states. The simultaneous visibility of the two image states, which are half an hour behind each other at the time of the photograph, provokes comparison and opens up a visible space of possibility.

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AT THE HOUSE / IN THE GARDEN

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VIDEOSQUENCE and PHOTOGRAPHS: AT THE HOUSE / IN THE GARDEN
The work shows a section of the architecture of the former Botanical Institute adjacent to the Botanical Garden in Frankfurt am Main. The tree of the gods (Ailanthus altissima), which is part of the picture, invasively colonises the vacant spaces of large cities as a neophyte, including Frankfurt. In this place, the tree close to the house becomes a sign of vacancy and wasted potential uses.
The motif shows a small yet characteristic part of the building façade of the Kramer Building: the reinforced concrete structure clad in yellow clinker bricks, ventilation openings and windows closed with screens and wooden panels. The architectural elements photographed from the front create an abstract (pastel/grey) surface grid. Only the moving branches of the tree and the changing incidence of light and shadows make the image recognisable as a moving image.
In its naturalistic colourfulness and size, the video relates directly to the current presentation space. The movement of the light and the tree creates the duration. By mirroring the image and rewinding the time, the second part of the video simulates the course of light in the evening.
Two photographs taken during the video production process were edited for large-format prints. The first photograph shows the motif before the sunlight hits the façade. The second photograph shows the façade in sunlight. In the photographs, the abstraction in the greyscale draws attention to the differentiated formal structure of the motif, to the surfaces and lines that are shaped differently in the two states. The simultaneous visibility of the two image states, which are half an hour behind each other at the time of the photograph, provokes comparison and opens up a visible space of possibility.

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Glass Blocks #3

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VIDEO IMAGE: GLASS BLOCKS / THISTLE PLANTS
Video recording of a glass block wall in the laboratory building of the former Botanical Institute of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main: Pots of thistle plants (Sonchus gomerensis) stand in front of the glass block wall opposite the Botanic Garden's greenhouses. The leaves of the plants move in the summer wind.
The decoration of the glass blocks, an overlay of eight vertical and eight horizontal divisions, fragments the image of the plants beind the glass and makes them appear in a square structure in the recorded video image.
The finished video image is created according to the modular principle:
A glass block is selected, digitally cropped and inserted several times in the editing programme into a frame-filling grid that corresponds in detail to the original structure of the wall. Within the image grid, the same block is shifted on the time axis by eight seconds at a time. In this way, a total of 15 points in time and time sequences are listed simultaneously in the video in the sense of a time span set in the moment, visible in each image. The structure of the repetition remains recognisable because the time offset of eight seconds is within the range of short-term memory. In the video image, the restless movements of the plants and the changing light contrast with the austerity of the grid in the glass.

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Automatic Door

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The automatic door of a bank building and its inscription rotate steadily. Thus, the city’s reflections are
replicated in a fragmented manner. This process runs asynchronously to a sequence shown on a
monitor placed next to the revolving door.

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Automatic Door  Automatiktür
Commerzbank AG, Head Quarter
Frankfurt am Main 2011
Video Installation / Exhibition View
Apple HDV / Quicktime Movie H.264 / 1920×1080 / 25p
Mute. 12 min 15 sec. Loop

Commerzbank Logo

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Lobby, Headquarters of the Commerzbank, Frankfurt on the Main: Upon opening and closing of a round glass door, its movable elements shift the inscription lines of the company logo affixed to the door. The characters slide past one another, shortly stop and spin back. The camera records these movements. Monitors function as their multiplication.

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Frankfurt Window

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The former Oberfinanzdirektion / Regional Finance Office building on Adickesallee in Frankfurt: On the eighth floor, a view of the cityscape is recorded, indirectly, using only the reflections in a window. By slowly moving the window, the buildings of the surrounding neighbourhood gradually appear at one edge of the pane and disappear at the other edge. The wall recesses visible through the window pane, and the window frame divide the video vertically. In contrast, the skyline, as well as the lines of the moving window blinds pass through horizontally. The video starts and ends with the window closed.

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