Utopia and perforated sheeting

Where else other than Berlin does the urban attitude to life celebrate its existence on a daily basis? Only the capital of Germany is mentioned in the same breath with other metropolises such as New York, Shanghai and London. Consistently surprising and courageous architecture contributes to this, by – as in the case of Dan Graham’s pavilion – willingly using perforated sheeting.

You would not think that Dan Graham is one of the most renowned conceptual artists of our time at first glance. Whether he is presenting his newest film “Death by Chocolate” at the Berlin Film Festival or new facets of his creation in the Flick Collection “Cult of the Artist”, he always retreats behind his own work. In this connection, he likes to work in an imposing environment. The combined heat and power plant in Berlin Mitte, built in 1996 by Jochem Jourdan,is one such example. Dan Graham built his pavilion made from glass and perforated sheeting on the premises of this combined gas and steam turbine power plant.

“I am interested by questions on the future, in utopia”, said the artist in 2007 in an interview. The pavilion’s location could not be more fitting. From an elliptic ground plan, the sidewalls of the pavilion encircle the visitor. Curved one-way mirrors and stainless steel perforated sheeting allows for light reflections and refractions, which according to Graham’s wish, serve to confound the visitors.

The pavilion is one of a group of artworks, which were placed in the area between the combined heat and power plant and the residential buildings in order to create a harmonious connection and mitigate the close distance between the two.

Utopia hasn’t been found yet and the future is a mystery. In Berlin, however, we have succeeded in coming a little bit closer to both.

« return to Home