Art in Adlershof
AIR BORNE
The sound installation AIR BORNE consists of 15 resonant bodies spread across the grassy area of Aerodynamic Park in the form of shiny, red ellipsoids. Combined with the ambient sounds, the spatial sound structure they generate -consisting of shorter louder signals and long quieter whispering sounds - produces a complete composition which will remain in place for around four years. The idea is to arouse associations with the history of aviation and the former Adlershof soundscape in passers-by. After the first German airfield was opened in Johannisthal-Adlershof in 1909, the site developed into an important centre of aviation research in the 1930s. This also gave rise to the wind tunnels and engine test facilities that are preserved today.
Heads, Shifting
Two identical, androgynous heads tower over the forum square on five-metre-high plinths and give the impression that they are pensively surveying the area. The radiate presence and detachment at the same time. In a state of flux, they slowly change their expression, their position to one another and their orientation to their surroundings. The changes are created by rotation of the two heads, which are split into horizontal sections. The heads occasionally dissolve their shape and become plastic structures, whose surfaces can only be perceived as abstract structures - but then they find themselves back in their starting position. Passing observers pause involuntarily to contemplate the pair: Who is meeting here? What’s going on between them?
‘Kopfbewegung - heads, shifting’ is a project by the Berlin-based artists Josefine Günschel and Margund Smolka. Thinking, researching, combining, openness and the ability to change perspective are timeless characteristics of the universe that the two artists seek to symbolise in their work. The varied dialogue positions of the heads are an analogy for communication on the campus. Turning away from each other and apparently deep in meditation, facing each other and relating to one another, in movement or even dissolved - the heads are intended to illustrate states and processes that refer to relationships between people as well as the mental faculties required for researching, discovering and learning. The artists’ work reflects the competition instructions, which specified a work that contributes to the identity formation and ambience of Campus Adlershof and at the same time, refers to the historical location of the Humboldt-Universität in Mitte.
Josefine Günschel was born in in Hanover in 1960. Between 1981-1985 she attended to State Drawing Academy in in Hanau. She focuses on site-specific and kinetic installations, as well as ‘percent for art’ projects.
Margund Smolka was born in in Kiel in 1958. From 1981, she studied liberal arts at the College of Fine Arts in Braunschweig. She graduated with an M.A. in 1987. Movement is an essential element of her artistic work.