On 20 May 2015 an art-for-architecture proposal for the Landtag (parliament) of Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart was submitted. The parliament building is to be extended by the addition of a subterranean centre for citizens and the press with an above-ground entrance in the shape of an amphitheatre. This remodelling of the site provides opportunities for installing art inside or for public art in the outside areas. The proposal entitled “Wie wirkt was?” (“What has what effect?”) consists of a double object for the space between the parliament building and the Stuttgart opera house. The object consists of four-sided steel tubes, painted in colours. The tubes are 16 cm wide and 8 m high in total.
“Wie wirkt was?”
15-13-001
of the flat object
15-13-002
in its spacious
surroundings
15-13-003
The object “Wie wirkt was” interprets politics as a perspective. Are today’s intentions still recognisable in a different perspective? Do we take decisions today that are also in the interests of future generations? The theme of effects and consequences is made into an image that plays with ways of seeing. In the present, politics is already a conflict between ways of seeing. Different things appear to be the same. The same thing appears in different ways. The theme of the double object is the reversal of perspectives. However, the reversal of perspectives is at the same time also the theme of every individual object. “Wie wirkt was” is thus a narrative on two levels. It has no sculptural character, but rather is flat – a spatial drawing, an almost immaterial sign. Because what matters is presence in the senses rather than presence in thought. “What has what effect” is a fundamental question for a parliament. Through a simple image, this question is a living, permanent impulse.