The temporary scaffolding sculpture add on – 20 meters altitude consisted of scaffolding elements and container-like components that in a way competed with its urban surroundings through its sheer size. The media theorist Reinhard Braun called add on a foreign body in the urban space that tends towards autonomy and counts in its own infrastructure. What might have been foreign was its presentation of various possibilities of architectural utilization in a loose and modular manner. Usually separated spheres like dwelling, work, consumerism, entertainment and recreation were combined in a cluster-like arrangement where a living room, a caravan with a front garden, a whirlpool feat. an installation by David Moises, a factory canteen, a music room, a sun patio and a panorama café were juxtaposed to each other. With its integrated toilets, a telescope to enjoy the vista and a table soccer table, the project add on might have appeared like an ironical commentary to the division of functions in the urban architecture surrounding it.
Due to the sculpture’s architectural dimensions and the special utilizations resulting from this, the audience could appropriate add on in many ways. As the various levels and hybrid spaces were accessible, the scaffolding sculpture turned into a playground for the children from the neighborhood, an exhibition and a look-out. While during the day more than 18,000 visitors used this walkable large-size sculpture as an inner-city place of excursions, the “city tower” turned into a huge clubbing space and chill out lounge in the evening.
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In the framework of add on numerous international artists were invited who developed their own site-specific projects dealing with the conditions of the Wallensteinplatz. Among others, Pia Lanzinger’s city expeditions, the unusual mapping by means of a helicopter carried out by the Galerie für Landschaftskunst Hamburg, Barbara Musil’s audiovisual installations, Richard Fajnor’s photographs or Michael Moravcek’s furniture could be listed here.
Despite the multifaceted possibilities of using the freely accessible scaffolding sculpture there was one central module which was exclusively used as a temporary living and working space for the invited artists and thus served the familiar function of architecture.
For the curator Vitus Weh add on represents a scenic parcours which incorporates the experimental theater’s notion of the audience as participators in the performance. The theatrical aspect is expressed by the idea that the work of art turns into one event space without separate spaces for the performers and the audience.
K.P.
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Reinhard Braun, ”add on – ein urbaner Cyborg“. In: dérive – Zeitschrift für Stadtforschung [magazine for urban research], issue 21/22, 2006, p. 14
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