Raum und Zeit
Year
Context
Art in Architecture commission for the dining hall at JVA Kaisheim.
Approach
8,760 coloured mosaic tiles form a panoramic counter-image to surveillance: a view towards horizon, duration and the changing light of a year.
Every day, every hour and what happens during this time leaves its mark. The artwork for the JVA Kaisheim symbolizes this by condensing all that into a picture of 8,760 colored mosaic stones 365 days a year.
The view from inside to outside and into the distance reverses the omnipresent motif of surveillance in prison. It shows a natural space within reach that cannot be seen from the dining room.
The finished picture creates a panorama window that gives a glimpse of what is particularly missing in this environment: breadth, space, horizon, and at the same time, as in Leo Lionni's famous story »Frederic«, a collection of colors and light Year.
A camera is aimed at the horizon and records the sky, vegetation and external influences every day. From these daily images, 24 pixels flow into the – initially digital – mosaic, so that over time the statistics for a year emerge; a passage through all the seasons.
The slow realtime development over one year, from mid 2021 to mid 2022, is visualized on four monitors. The visitors to the canteen take part in the process of creation on a daily basis. The digitally collected pixels are then converted into true-to-color real glass squares and installed as a mosaic on site.
The motif seems ordinary and insignificant, and yet stands for a lot: freedom!