2’13”, 4.6 Meters, 2019
Medium: Powder coat paint on steel
Dimension: 2000x2000x4600mm (each stair)
Commision: Gwangju Design Biennale 2019
Collaborator: Kang Seungmin (curator), Gom design (production), Nathing Studio (image)
Exhibition title: Humanity for Next Generation
Venue: Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, Gallery 2, Gwangju, KR
Period: 2019.09.07—2019.10.31
The Bauhaus, that celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, aspired after integrating design from a perspective of equality in society, based on overall aesthetics. And this purpose is based on multidisciplinary experiments on the body and space, exploring basic conditions of humanity. In particular, these attempts stand out in the traditions of the Bauhaus festivals and stage experiments. Oscar Schlemmer, who conducted it, once said, “The stage should reflect the new era and be more contemporary than anything else”.
This piece is a reinterpretation of Space Dance from Oscar Schlemmer's Bauhaus Dance, as an extension of the previous installation, 2'13", 36 Frames for Man Space Machine—Stage Experiments at the Bauhaus at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary art, Korea in 2014. In 2'13", 36 Frames, Space Dance was translated into a visual score, based on the movement and color of the performers, created spatial experiences. Based on this visual score, 2'13", 4.6 Meters suggests a reinterpreted stage space for the viewer to imagine the performer's actions, focusing on the relationship between space and body.
Initially, Spiral stairs were introduced in European architecture to efficiently utilize narrow spaces, but the experience created by it as a transitional space is unique. As soon walking in the entrance, the prescribed repetitive steps and the position of the handrails define your movement and drop you in the vacuum where the sense of direction to be lost. 2'13", 4.6 Meters is installed with three different spiral stairs, each constructed with a different single height, dictating the movements of the three performers in Space Dance.