The Wolfsburg Ganzfeld Piece – as this work of art has been named – is the largest installation ever implemented by the American artist in a museum. Encompassing an area of 700 square metres and 12 meters in height, the installation comprises two rooms that merge into each other, called Viewing Space and Sensing Space, both completely empty and flooded with coloured light that keeps slowly changing. Zumtobel provided the LED luminaires and projectors used in this exhibition.
From 24 October, visitors entering these rooms will experience unique sensory perceptions in this homogeneous visual field. While the light manifests itself, referring to nothing but itself, an interplay between surfaces, colours and space is produced, creating an atmosphere that completely encloses the audience and their senses. Viewers plunge into a mysterious, yet scenic world made of pure light. The artist himself calls this experience “feeling with one’s eyes”.
The culmination of the life’s work of James Turrell, who was born in Los Angeles in 1943 and is today considered one of the most important contemporary artists, is the Roden Crater, an extinct volcano situated in the desert of Arizona, which he has been turning into an artistic observatory since 1974. The Wolfsburg Project installed at the Art Museum relates to this cosmic “light observatory”, virtually turning the Roden Crater – which opens up towards the sky – inside out, as it were, thus creating an infinite interior space. For this extravagant installation, state-of-the-art lighting technology is being used, and the artist makes full use of all opportunities the building offers, which are unprecedented in Germany’s museum landscape. The Wolfsburg Project incorporating the Ganzfeld Piece as well as supplemental installations and documentations is the US artist’s largest exhibition ever shown in Germany.
The installation will be on display in Wolfsburg until 5 April 2010. The exhibition at the Art Museum will be accompanied by a large number of side events such as discussions with architects, among others.
