Twisted Tube
Our work is characterized by collaboration with partners from related fields such as graphic design, art, technology, or construction. Through dialogue, our architectural potentials unfold. For the project "Vitra Ampelphase IV," we collaborated with the artist Achim Lengerer and sound designer Dietrich Krüger. In the joint installation "Two Stories," we tell two narratives that showcase our respective working methods and develop and complement each other through mutual exchange. Architectural elements transform into literary and illustrative motifs, which, in turn, flow back into the architecture as acoustic references.
Details
The "Twisted Tube" is derived from the building’s ventilation systems ductwork in the showroom. This creates a connection between the outdoor space in front of the display window and the interior of the exhibition.
Special thanks to Asterios Agkathidis (a3Lab) for the three-dimensional realization of the Tube's design, and to the Schmid GmbH Simmerberg/Allgäu, whose modern production technology was able to transport the Tube's form from the digital world into a built structure.
The construction drawing of the "Twisted Tube" serves as a graphic motif for Achim Lengerer's paper artwork titled "Wenn die letzte Ziffer des Kilometerzählers doch endlich in das kleine schwarze Loch fiele, statt in Ewigkeit in der Schwebe zu bleiben" (When the last digit of the odometer finally fell into the small black hole instead of lingering forever). The drawing is based on the short story "Die südliche Autobahn" (The Southern Highway) by the Argentine author Julio Cortazar, which describes the events during a multi-day traffic jam on a French highway. During the traffic jam, familiar social boundaries are dissolved, allowing for unforeseen social dynamics and communicative constellations to emerge.
Cortazar's motif of the traffic jam and its effect on society is, in turn, used by filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard in his 1967 film "Weekend." The movement and non-movement of the traffic jam are translated into a parallel narrative movement in an 8-minute continuous shot.
This transformation and transposition of motifs from one narrative to another, from one author to another, from one medium to another, are reflected in the installation "Two Stories." The audio or film track from "Weekend," with changing narrative directions, is fed back into JBA's sculpture. Two stories are heard in parallel, suggesting narrative resolutions but keeping them suspended, and their motifs accelerate, halt, or slow down in different speeds. The installation "Two Stories" was specially developed for Ampelphase 4.
Client
Vitra GmbH
Location
Frankfurt am Main
Finalisation
09.2009
Network
Achim Lengerer
Dietrich Krüger
Asterios Agkathidis, a3Lab
Schmid GmbH
Photos
Eibe Sönnecken