installation, mixed media
200x50x50 cm
Vienna, Bucharest, 2008
The motor is running up and down a 2.55 metre high steel contruction. A scribing needle, fastened to it, produces a line that goes deeper into the wall bit by bit, penetrating the exhibition space.The scale of the title “line 1:985“ refers to the Boulevard Unirii, a straight avenue of Bucharest, which was cut into the city under the regime of Ceauçescu without regard for the older structures, now hidden by representative façades.
The simple act of drawing a line imitates the formation of the Boulevard Unirii Brefe, referenced as a blind, site-specific work.
Being confronted by the city of Bucharest forced me to research, as the city seemed to be so removed from my usual subjects. However, although my investigations lead to information, they didn’t seem to provide sufficient inspiration to produce a work that avoided stereotypical approaches.
As a result I worked with what I considered to be my problems;
I started focusing on existing monuments that were built without respect to their surroundings and the existing infrastructure. The imprudence and unfeasibility of these projects seemed linked to my interests.
The repetitive movement with which the machine copies Boulevard Unirii shows the ambivalence between my initial intentions of site specific work/structures and the blindness, the impossibility of basing something on this.
