— Form 4 Enlitened Elevation

   
 

An Inquiry into a White Loop Expanding

 Paternoster Performance >>       Schema >>

2 of the largest political economies today are large corporations. Wal-Mart,for example, has a larger economic capacity
than South Africa or Portugal. Today, the capital markets dominate over national economies.
Prof. Stefan Brunnhuber, 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 corrodors and halls. The project was concieved 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.

 

White Loop
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 was ‚informed‘ by Gerald Nestler in his opening performance
and during the exhibition as a parallel action to that of the actors.

Loop Expansion
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.



GOGO Wheels 1-12
Revolvable objects carry texts that spiral upwards like on 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.



 

 

 

Love is in the Air
A Benchmark Project.
A display case is ‘filled’ with a projection that is visible only on the glass cover.
The images are transmitted from a live-webcam situated in the same time zone
but in a cleary different and distinct reality outside Europe.
The display space, usually reserved for a precious object
looks empty but in reality, it carries precious information at the brink.

 

 


Condensed Trailer
Basement Project
At the lower turning point of the Paternoster, in a usually private area,
a screen displays the enlitened elevation trailer.
Incorporating corporations and their CEOs
the trailer's flashing logos act as if they were
scanning, consuming the travellers in this dark space,.




 

 


enlitement

Visual Code as Logo.
Projection in the hall.
A 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 through economic interests.

Human Resource is not as Rare as Reality
Text work, first floor.

 

 

Sheltered Colony
Installation.
Ground floor, lower foyer.
Courtesy Wissenschaftliches Kabinett.
Simon Weber-Unger