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2 of the largest political economies
today are large corporations:
Wal-Mart, f.e., has a larger economic capacity than South Africa or Portugal.
Today, the capital markets dominate over national economies.
Prof. Stefan Brunnhuber, in: brand1, 10/2003
The art project Form 4 Enlitened Elevation is shown
in the Paternoster—the elevator at the Industriellenvereinigung —and
in some of the surrounding spaces. The project is concieved especially
for the location.
Form 4 Enlitened Elevation is adopting the role of an economic-political
‚newsroom‘, that ‚broadcasts‘ political as well as
social issues and parameters. By inserting itself into the main building
of the association of the Austrian industries it opens this pressure group
to totally different approaches and perspectives towards economy. It is
traveling through the building, integrating the visitors and the staff
into the piece. It is moderating and opening different facets of our reality,
which are not only affected by the paradigmatic function of economy but
actually created by it. Some of the horizontal (like its global spreading)
and vertical (like its hierarchies) expansions of todays economies are
being transfered into the loop of the paternoster. The cabins become ‚personalities,‘
they become ‚subjects,‘ ‚realities,‘ which show global
economy not as merly abstract agglomeration, defined and caused through
power structures and mechanisms that are barely understandable. The project
presents voices that are experienced directly—diverse microcosms
dwelling side by side in the macroeconomy—occupying the paternoster
for the time of the exhibition. By this, the project installs ‚plug-ins‘
that are experienced as presence.
Form 4 Enlitened Elevation could be described as
a game appropriating the visitors as well as the Industriellenvereinigung
as participants and ‚global‘ players. The playground is composed
of the institution itself—the paternoster cabins, its looped movement,
the corridors and foyers. The structure of the game applies to entering
the field, moving through the field with variations in the flow of the
visuals and the sounds.
A different approach to the project is to perceive
it like a movie. White Loop would then appear as the ‚plot‘,
Loop Expansion as the ‚actors‘ and the ‚action‘, GoGo
Wheels as the the ‚script‘, Human Resource is Not as Rare as
Reality as the ‚message‘, Love is in the Air as ‚subplot‘,
Condensed Trailer as itself and as a ‚hidden message‘ in a lead
role: enlitement. The ‚film‘ runs vertically and looped. The
‚filming‘ is realized in the mind of the visitors which take
part in processing the action itself. Thus the projection is actually
happening at the same time as the shooting.
A „white cube“ is installed in one of the cabins running in
loop throughout the exhibition. Mirrors give the illusion and allusion
of an elevator shaft. The space is being ‚informed‘ by Gerald
Nestler in his opening performance and during the exhibition as a parallel
action to the actors.
Actors are performing at the opening in all the other 12 cabins. They
represent affirmative to radically opposed positions towards global economy.
An intimate and concentrated interplay between the actors and the visitors
travelling with them is developing. Experiencing the performance from
outside the cabins, one will find different realities rolling by, building
diverse perceptions and texts.
During the exhibition the texts are going to be presented as a sound installation
inside and outside the paternoster.
Revolvable objects carry the texts in upward spirals inspired by the Trajan
column in Rome—an early form of ‚filmic‘ representation.
By turning the columns the texts are ‚outsourced‘ much like
prayer wheels outsource mantras.
Benchmark Project.
A display case is ‘filled’ with a projection that bursts into
visibility only on the glass cover. The images are transmitted from a
live-webcam that is situated in the same time zone but a cleary different
and distinct reality outside Europe. The display space, usually reserved
for a precious object, itself seems ‘empty’ but carries information
at the brink.
Basement Project
At the lower turning point of the Paternoster, in a normally prohibited
area, a screen displays the trailer to enlitened elevation that incorporates
industry and CEOs into the work. In this dark space, flashing logos act
as if they were scanning, consuming the travellers.
Visual Code as Logo. Projection in the hall.
projection on the wall of the main representative floor. enlitement is
based on the concept of the Enlightenment as defined by Immanuel Kant
and mirrors its dissolving, its ‚litening‘ through economic
interests.
Written text on the first floor.
Installation. Exotische Vögel in einem Glassturz. Courtesy Wissenschaftliches
Kabinett. Simon Weber-Unger. Erdgeschoß, Unteres Foyer.
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