Virtual View

Virtual View (Virtuelle Ausblicke)

Site-specific installation  (2000)

(Contribution to the competition for a site-specific work for the New Exhibition Hall of the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg)

Slide projection, 10 slide projectors, slides

(Winner of the first prize)

The architecture of the Academy of Art is characterised by wide, open vistas. Through the open passageways, courtyards and pavilions, whose large window fronts open directly onto the fields and woods, architecture and nature appear closely bound. In contrast, the new exhibition hall is closed off from the exterior creating a relatively hermetic exhibition space with long walls. My project undermines this separation. The walls will be eliminated, without intervening in the architecture, by projecting onto them a series of slides showing the view, which would otherwise be visible if the walls were not there or were made of glass. On each wall there is thus a long continuous band, a virtual view. On the one wall the woods are visible, on the other the glass facade of the building opposite can be seen, lending the walls the appearance of transparency.