Bettina Pousttchi – THE CURVE at Bundeskunsthalle Bonn
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Bettina Pousttchi realizes the 35-meter-long and 4-meter-high sculptural work The Curve on the flat roof of the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn. In doing so, she responds to the architecture of the building by Gustav Peichl and his understanding of the roof as a „fifth facade“ and as „another exhibition space“. Placed in the northwest corner, the sculpture nestles dynamically into the surrounding space in the form of an accessible steep curve. Markings, similar to those on a roadway, lead visitors toward the object and connect it associatively with the urban context of the street and the urban space. With The Curve, the artist also makes reference to the legendary test track for cars that the Fiat Group built on the roof of its factory in the Lingotto district of Turin, which opened in 1923. In its time, it stood for acceleration, movement and progress, and thus also decisively for the utopia of modernity. Pousttchi‘s construction-typological transformation of a car curve into a bicycle curve gives rise to a sculpture that offers visitors an open stage for movement and encounter and makes The Curve an artistic statement for a fluid society. Thus, the walk-in large-scale sculpture is also a reflection on fluid change, participation and sustainability and blurs the boundaries of reality and artistic fiction.
The artistic focus of Bettina Pousttchi‘s work is always on the examination of structures of public space and, in addition to sculpture and photography, also includes site-specific interventions with the means of photography on the scale of architecture. For example, Echo, 2009, was a monumental photo installation on the entire façade of the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin that referenced the Palace of the Republic. With The Curve, the artist also realizes for the first time a sculpture on the scale of architecture that invites visitors to interact and participate.
Watch a video here (German).
An artist talk with Bettina Pousttchi and Susanne Kleine will take place on June 4th, 6pm at the Bundeskunsthalle.
Bundeskunsthalle Bonn
Museumsmeile Bonn
Helmut-Kohl-Allee 4
53113 Bonn