Das Projekt Eiskeller & Himmelslöcher ? Kunstprojekte, Interventionen, Erkundungen, Rekonstruktionen und Kartierungen fasst die Rahmenbedingungen von zeitgenössischer Kunst neu. Anti-museal, kunstmarktfern, an zumeist abgelegenen Orten, in feuchten Erdkellern oder auf Eiskellerbergen ? entfernt es sich weit von erprobten Ausstellungsformaten und Publikumserwartungen. Das Arbeitsbuch zeigt, dass es nicht in erster Linie um die Präsentation von künstlerischen Arbeiten an exotischen Orten geht ? um Eisprojekte in Eiskellern ? sondern um Beiträge zur Situation von Kunst und Gesellschaft, Geschichte und Gegenwart, Vergellschaftung und Klimawandel. Die Arbeiten der vier Künstler Till Krause, Ulrike Mohr, Dan Peterman und Hans Winkler verfolgen das Ziel, die Umgebung und das Publikum in ästhetische und politische Ambivalenzen zu verwickeln.
Verena Voigt, Hans Winkler (Hg./Ed.)
Künstler Till Krause, Ulrike Mohr, Dan Peterman und Hans Winkler
The project Ice Houses and Sky Holes ? Interventions, Explorations, Reconstructionsand Mapping in Schleswig-Holstein 2012-13 takes the ice houses inSchleswig-Holstein, largely forgotten cultural monuments, as a base for artisticinvestigation and research. Within this context and in a timespan of two yearsbetween 2012 and 2013, Till Krause, Ulrike Mohr, Dan Peterman, and Hans HsWinkler developed conceptual artworks and realized them in remote locations,in damp earth cellars and on ice house mounds.
Devised with the artists, this publication shows that the concern is not so mucha presentation of artworks in exotic places, but more a contribution to thecurrent circumstances of art and society, past and present, principles of communizationand climate change.
Within this framework, the artists speak a low-key and precise pictorial language.Dan Peterman shows bizarre human demeanor with a lonely ice swimmerin the endless expanse of frozen Lake Michigan. Till Krause introduces newcartographical perspectives to the ground map of Germany by setting ice pathsand ice houses in relation to natural geological formations. Ulrike Mohr callsto memory a chapter from the history of natural science and Hans Hs Winklerbuilds a bridge between a public ice house and alternative strategies of distribution.
The realization of these ice projects in historical ice houses is an attempt toaccess the gaps bordering on landscape, architecture, and art. As a forgottenedifice and monument of a lost sophisticated building culture, the ice housebecomes a place for reflection. Far from city-event-culture, in the countrysideor in the shelter of the manor estates of rural Schleswig-Holstein, the viewer isexposed to unfamiliar conditions of perception. Already the location makesthe theme of climate change omnipresent; the ice house is a historical climatethermometer that delivers metadata on the climate fluctuations escorting late19th century industrial history (Lu?tgert 2000, p. 88-92).
Antecedents: In the 1960s, ice was discovered as a material for art by artists andart groups such as Joseph Beuys, Dennis Oppenheim, Allan Kaprow, Paul Kosand Terry Fox. Since then, the avant-gardes have re-used ice in manifold materialinvestigations as an ambivalent working material that records time withoutcalling on characteristics of stable substance and determined form. The interviewwith Harald Kimpel invites us to re-read these projects and must be understoodas a dialog between the historical projects and the Ice House-Project. In thesecontextualizations the issues of ?Art and climate change? in KunstforumInternational (?Kunst und Klimawandel?), vol. 199, 2009 and the general discourseon aesthetics and sustainablity got an increasing relevance. The ice houseproject has unraveled these and many other own thoughts of the artists anew,to a certain extent in ideal locations, in the span between natural and culturallandscapes and art as a temporary intervention and installation.
A rediscovery of the ice house together with local inhabitants stirs old tales andits presentation within the focus of contemporary art triggers new fantasies,lifting this preindustrial testimony of a forgotten technological culture to atreasured value. Beauty and aesthetics of the ice houses as qualities beyond asheer utilitarian role were repeatedly subject of discussion. At all times, themanifold imaginative architectural features and technical ingenuity of thisheritage monument have exerted great fascination. The archival documentscollected in this book direct our attention towards a cultural field that, in additionto cultural historiography and scholarship, is coined by tales. These haveadded to the inspiration of the artworks and will remain with them.
A number of themes could only be touched on and call for further development.
The thought of a custom built communal ice house was a permanent companionto the project. This must also be understood within the context of the projectsequel chosen by Hans Hs Winkler. The historical building plan calls for theconceptual construction of a communal ice house of the 21st century. The publicationis not only a documentation of the project, but also a collection ofmaterials and source for further discussion and projects. It is also a book onexploration and on the ambivalent beauty of ice.
The project was financially supported by Stiftung Kunstfonds zur F.rderungder bildenden Kunst in Bonn, the Kulturstiftung des Landes Schleswig-Holstein,the Muthesius Kunsthochschule in Kiel, and MUK Logistik GmbH in Munich.The incentive for the general idea of the project came from Stephan A. Lu?tgert?spublication ?Eiskeller, Eiswerke und Ku?hlhaeuser in Schleswig-Holstein und Hamburg?(?Ice Houses, Ice Plants and Cold Stores in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg?,Husum 2000).
We wish to thank all who stimulated us, above all the owners of the ice housesfor their pro-active support. Next to works by Till Krause, Ulrike Mohr, DanPeterman, and Hans Hs Winkler, the Kunstverein Haus 8 in Kiel also presentedphotographic contributions and videos on the topic of ice by Paul Kos, Jill Taffet,and Lisa K. Blatt. We are most grateful to the artists for enabling us to showtheir works.
Verena Voigt M.A. and Hans Hs Winkler, Project Initiators
