DURST

Untitled

2003

Bricks at the site of a former powdered sugar factory, sand

W10000 D10000 H800 mm

Exhibition

2003 DURST

Square in front of the former site of a powdered sugar factory, Hanover, Germany

In September 2003, the one-man exhibition “Durst” took place in Hanover-Lehrte, Germany. The main venue was a 50-year-old brick

building that once served as a sugar mill, with the large square in front of the building also serving as an exhibition space. As other

objects around the factory had been torn down, only this building remains as a somewhat ominous looking cubic structure. The large

space in front of it is reportedly the result of an operation in which a number of other sugar mills that were once surrounding the

building, were demolished and leveled to the ground several years ago. For some reason, only one building was left standing. I had taken a train from the city to the suburbs, where I stumbled across this place while walking around looking for a location to exhibit my works. “Big” – this was the first impression that I got when standing in front of the vast plot of land on a relatively big road that was lined with DIY stores, supermarkets and private houses. In this environment, to me the site stood out as a conspicuously deserted looking place.

In the ruins of the former factory, I installed a broken terra-cotta work, and outside, a work made of crushed brick. For the terracotta piece, I first leveled a lump of clay into an organic shape of fifty millimeters height and ten meters width, which I left out in the open. Due to this exposure to natural light, the object gradually dried and cracked into pieces (of about twenty centimeters), which I eventually separated along the cracks and fired individually. These fired pieces I reassembled to restore the original shape.

For the other work, together with a larger number of helpers, I collected bricks from the partially demolished former factory building that had been scattered around, and crushed and grinded them to dust. Then I piled up clay to create a hill-shaped foundation, onto which I sprinkled the brick dust. The result is a work that keeps changing its shape as it is gradually destroyed through natural phenomena (wind and rain), human intervention (intentional destruction) and welcome interaction (cycling on it – which I was lucky to capture in photographs when I witnessed someone do just that). Only this work remained installed on the site even after the end of the exhibition, where it is probably still transforming today.

The exhibition was covered in various local media, and I was just happy about the fact that there was so much feedback in the form of newspaper articles and TV features. Even though it attracted a total of less than forty visitors, the exhibition was for me the very first

solo show that defined the future prospects of my creative work.

                                                                                                                                             Translated by Andreas Stuhlmann

2003 年9 月、ドイツ/ ハノーバー・レアテ市にて個展「DURST ] を開催した。50 年前に建てられたレンガ造りの粉砂糖工場跡地をメイン会場に、その前方の広大な広場と二カ所での展示となった。工場跡地は付属的な部分が故意に壊され、一つのキューブとして不気味に佇んでいた。前方の広場には、かつて他にも粉砂糖工場が無数に存在し、数年前、なぜかその一つだけを残しその他すべては壊され平地に均されたという。会場を探すため電車に乗っては郊外へ行き、うろうろしていた私はその広大な敷地の前で「でかい」と普通に思った。それが第一印象だった。その一帯は比較的大きな道路に面しており、ホームセンター、スーパー、民家などが点在していた。その中でその場所は一際異彩を放って放置されたように私には見えた。工場跡地内にはひび割れたテラコッタ作品、屋外にはレンガ作品をそれぞれ設置した。

テラコッタ作品は自然の光量を利用した作品である。まず粘土を厚さ50 ミリ幅10 メートルに均していき有機的な形体を造形し屋外にさらす。すると、粘土が少しずつ乾燥しピース（だいたい20 センチ程度）ごとにひび割れていく。ひび割れに沿って分割し素焼きする。それらを元の形に再構築した。

レンガ作品は、周辺に散乱していた工場跡地の半壊部分のレンガを大人数でかき集め、叩いてはすり潰しながら粉々にする。そして下地になる土を山のような形状に造形し、その上にレンガの粉を塗していった。

この作品は、雨風（自然現象）や、人や自転車（破壊願望）により破壊され変移する作品である（偶然自転車による破壊現場を目撃し写真に収めることができたのは、歓迎すべき出来事であった）。この作品だけは展覧会終了後もそのまま残され、今なお変移し続けていることだろう。展覧会はいくつかの地元メディアに取り上げられた。地元新聞による取材記事やテレビ収録等リアクションが少なからずあったということがなんともうれしかった。来場客は40 人足らずだったが、自分自身にとって初個展であり今後の展望が開けた展覧会となった。