Passage

2022
Digital ceramic print on glass
665 cm high x 80 cm wide
Comissioned by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
permanent installation
photos by Tobias Hang/ IMM


The work Passage is a vertical glass image mounted to the wall at a height of 3 meters. The work is positioned left of the middle, allowing a clear view from various angles, visually accompanying the ascending and descending of the staircase. The resolution and recognizability of the image addresses the proximity and more distanced views; the different perspectives from which the work is seen from the staircase results in various reflective colour and image impressions. The motif is an abstract image composed of different points, alternating between green, yellow, blue and white tones.

The verticality and spatial effect of the work suggest an opening in the wall, reinforced by the reflection on the glass. From some distance green-blue foliage can be seen, bringing the idea of an external virtual landscape into the building.

Through the conversion into a raster, the image becomes abstract in detail, while allowing a representational read as an overall picture. The dissolved surfaces on the glass enhance a three-dimensional effect. Making use of proximity and distance, detail, resolution and overal image, the artwork figuratively references the work being done in the building - the creative process of the scientists moving in the tension between abstraction and nature, and through the observation of microscopic details, keeping an eye on the important social issues.

The German term Passage refers to a hallway, a corridor, or a journey. It also refers to the flowing, moving on, passing by, going through, to connections, entrance and exit in equal measure.
The creative process of the scientist is a systemic one, but also a creative one, in which the work on details as well as on the entirety is an interlocking process requiring mental openness and the ability to be spontaneously inspired. In the systemic approach nature is nevertheless always a model.

The slight reflection of the glass surface reftlects the recognition and disappearance of the coherent image. The gradual grasping of the gaze thematises comprehension, understanding, repetition and new beginnings.