Balanceakt II

Place: Franckesche Stiftungen, Halle (Saale), Germany
Date: 2018-2019
Material: Mineral facade paint
Partner: Philipp Eichhorn & Bzu
Assistance: Alexander Fredoe Dümke, Alexander Staiger, Frieder Bader, Hanna Müller-Kaempffer, Joav Scholz, Kyrill Hirner, Marten Ernst, Martin Krauth, Max Rademacher, Michael Schulze, Nancy Röschter, Philipp Hurst, Philipp Kienast, Robert Czolkoß, Sebastian Boo Borkert, Stefan RDY Retzlaff, Sone, Tillmann Ziola, Tim

The way
Man maps the world in numbers, formulas and laws. He builds with tools, he moves with motors and calculates with machines. He thinks on a small and large scale and that is how the murals work: Recurring large structures – such as balls of wool, a planet and a hemisphere model – are already recognizable from a distance, while man is reflected in the small, at eye level of the viewers*. The view into the unknown, the reach for the stars and the conquest of space occupy August Hermann Francke, communist cosmonauts and today’s scientists alike. The thirst for knowledge and the urge to research lead to further development, but also to the obsession with efficiency. „Higher, faster, further“ cannot be a sustainable concept for human history.   

The Balancing Act
In Halle there is the tale of Till Eulenspiegel, a jester from the Middle Ages who stretched a rope between two houses. He bet that he could perform a trick with a big stick attached to all the left shoes of the spectators. At the top of the rope he cut the string and people fell over each other looking for their shoes in the chaos. This local story is the inspiration for this wall.