Lets´s  build three cabins

Introduction

In his project “TRANSVERSUM”, AntonMarkus Pasing takes as his starting point a systematic investigation of the remaining structures of the municipal plant nursery.The impression of desertion and neglect is characterised by dead plant remains, defunct equipment and the structural remains of the former greenhouses. The artist sets visionary designs against the existing situation which can then be observed through a mini-TV.

By inserting a coin into an ordinary vending machine, visitors get a Plastiscope Viewmaster through which they are presented with a spectrum of potential changes which can be viewed from an observation point of their choice. The projection is superimposed onto the image of the derelict site which can consequently be viewed by ashift in consciousness in a new way according to the suggested transformation. The possible image of the future provides a stimulus for the observer to decide for himself from the design options put for-ward and to pursue or reject the concepts.

In this way, the appropriation of the temporarily unused site becomes an open, discursive process which intrinsically contains various different intentions and demands a continual shift of perspective from the observer.

Anton Markus Pasing latches on to there mains of the former municipal plant nursery in each of his designs. Electricity and water supply equipment recall the original grid structure of the site, but with-out being able to carry out the functions connected with them anymore. The frame-work constructions of the green houses appear as lines which form the outline of an architectonic body, yet without demarcating the now open structure as volumes of external space. The artist sees these contours as transverses which intersect a geometrical shape.

As they can be extended arbitrarily, they connect the given volume potentially with an infinite variety of other spaces and thus create an energetic system. The images which appear on the mini-TV correspondingly extend the technical remains – the conduits, cables and wires – into visionary structures which overgrow the site in a fine network.

This meshwork is condensed into a complex structure which, though it suggests a possible functionality, does not, however, reveal its actual designation. The observer gets lost in tunnel-like, labyrinthine spaces which seem in part to become disconnected from the forces of gravity and advance energetically in all directions. The superimpositions transform the existing transitional situation into a dynamic entity which can be associated inits vast dimensions with the hard disk of a computer or utopian spaces from computer games.

In this way, various different levels of perception intersect each other in the TRANSVERSUM project. It is a matter intervening experimentally in the renaturation process of a landscape space and of orienting this space towards possible future designs by taking into account emotional and intuitive perceptions. The topography acquires a temporal dimension through the connection with images of retrospection and anticipation.

Christoph Kiveleitz. 2005