Fontanelle | Chema Alvargonzalez

Ausschuß is an installation by Chema Alvargonzalez within Fontanelle project, a group exhibition curated by Christopher Tannert in 1993. The exhibition is part of the celebrations of 1.000 th. anniversary of the city of Potsdam.

Chema's work is located to the left of one of the façades of a wheat warehouse in Potsdam. The building used to be owned by the Prussian army and is currently used as an art centre (Kunsthalle). The German word AUSSCHUβ is built in metal as a three dimensional form filled with red neon lights. The word is located in the bottom left hand side of the façade and is written in negative so it reflects as a positive on the water where waste accumulates around it.

This artwork plays with the multiple meanings of the word AUSSCHUβ; emphasizing AUSSCHUβ as a leftover from industrial production surrounded by the leftover waste that floats in this area of the canal as it accumulates in front of the building. AUSSCHUβ as the final commissioning of the legislative process; reflecting on the AUSSCHUβ COMISSIONNEN that would meet in Potsdam to judge all cases related to political matters in the old GDR (German Democratic Republic of East Germany). It is here that those that failed to cross The Wall and were captured alive were to be judged.

Blue neon lights are installed covering the rest of the façade above the three dimensional form of the word AUSSCHUβ. Upon sunset, this creates a whole new universe of blue elements that are mirrored on the water running through the canal. This universe is strengthened by the noise coming from the windows of the small building under construction next to the Kunsthalle; a computer generated sound based on the sound of whales. This soundtrack serves to further highlight atmosphere halfway between magic and subreal contrasting with the strong meaning of the word AUSSCHUβ.

Artists: Chema Alvargonzalez, Sergei Anufrijev, Rasheed Araeen, Christine VowkW, LifiZ Barainhecit, Dagmar Demming, Georg Dietzler, Peter Fend, Andrea Fisher, Thomas Florschuetz, e. Twin Gabriel , Jochen Gerz, Andreas Ginkel, Gregory Green, Renee Green, Chris Hill, Bettina Hoffmann, Alfredo Jaar, Katharina Karrenberg, Serge Kliaving, Thomas Kunzmann, Rachel Lachowicz, Jozef Legrand, Yurij Lejderman, FREIE PRAXIS Via & Pina Lewandowsky, Olaf Metzel, Dan Mihaltianu, Paper Tiger TV, Pavel Pepperstein, Mikhail Roshal, Victoria Samojlova, Hans Scheuerecker, Lisa Schmitz, Rollin Signer, Kiki Smith, Klaus Staeck, Norbert Stuck, Inga Svala Thorsdottir, Peter Weibel, Wu Shan Zhuan

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