TREPTOWER PARK, BERLIN (DE)
closed competition 2018 / first price
LAYING AND EXPOSURE
The installation "Way Through" by Pascal Brateau at the rosengarten in Treptower Park
In his sculptural oeuvre, the house plays an important role as a three-dimensional body, thus expanding its architectural practice in a sculptural dimension. Pascal Brateau installs his houses in special locations and reacts to the particular spatial situation in his particular form.
The work realized here relates to the district anniversary of 450 years Treptow in a special way.
The location reference pursued by Pascal Brateau also proves here on the rose garden. His installation "Way Through" takes up the givens of the open path and its materiality quite concretely. This way is designed with square washed concrete slabs. This is followed by Brateau in terms of material and dimensions. He piled them up into a wall differentiated in height. The path literally straightens, its two-dimensional surface developing into a sculptural form. Brateau thinks the continuity of the way in three-dimensions.
The profile of the height development rises first only flat with only one slab, continues with the stratification of 3 slabs on, increases to 6 slabs and wins over the strength of only 10, then 15 and finally 21 stacked concrete walkway slabs its finite height. The height development is reminiscent of a mathematical series, the altitude jump exponentiates each one slab.
The design of the gradually rising slabs includes an interior, and the use of diagonally cut slabs gives the installation a direction. The massiveness of the wall built up with the slabs is almost broken right in the middle of the installation. Here the acute angles of the halved concrete slabs almost only touch, and the background shines through carefully.
While Brateau uses the house as a sculptural archetype in his previous installations, his installation on the rose garden defines the house as a negative form. The height development of the path forms a frame, and the inscribed gable image of a house now appears as a two-dimensional recess. The house mentioned here no longer stands, but rather lies on the floor as a picture of a house gable - perhaps a picture of the past?
The concrete slabs spread out by the artist Pascal Brateau thus look like an exposure. They call up the image of an archaeological site as if a past layer had been dug up and uncovered there. As a result of the "excavation" the two-dimensional gable-picture of a house appears. And that brings us to the story of 450 years of Treptow. Pascal Brateau points out that history manifests itself in the dwelling of people. Only with the dwelling does the human being and the civilization history of a place or a region become documented. He sees the image of the past as a two-dimensional one inscribed in a plasticized present but no longer forming a three-dimensional body. The Way, our - "Way Through" - leads through the past into the present. The house of the past represents an archaeological void.
This historical dimension of the art posed by Pascal Brateau corresponds to the artistic working method of laying and layering the concrete slabs. They correspond to the geological time pattern of layers of the earth and may therefore rise to 21 stone layers - in a sense corresponding to the 21st century. What sounds so symbolic reveals itself as an extraordinarily direct and simple approach. The artwork integrates into the given structures of the place. It works with an ordinary restrained material, an inconspicuous and almost imperceptible material. This is hardly subjected to any individual artistic treatment. The work is based on the laying of artistic work material, so that it seems almost fragile and unstable. If we did not know that the individual plates are glued together, we could be worried about the possible collapse of the plate piles. The result is a restrained artistic appearance that could almost be confused with a construction site. This simplicity and withdrawal makes the appeal of the work, which convinced the jury against the also very appealing proposals of Bettina Khano and Susanne Kessler in the competitive process.
Pascal Brateau's working principle could be put with the three verbs, put, place, lay. The artist forms with his action, but not with an individual shaping of materials and details. Brateau has also based this principle on his previous installations and sculptures, which seem to have been layered, even if they are piled high up in the sky. Brateau is thus following in the footsteps of minimalism, an art movement from the late 1960s, which was primarily anchored in the US and aimed at a reduction to simple geometric structures and the seriality raised to the design principle. Well-known artists of minimalism in the fine arts were, for example, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Sol Le Witt and a few others.
By analogy, Brateau takes the given situation as a graphic structure, from which he derives his concept and inserts his thoughts into this structure. Buried in it, he finds the image of the past, a house of the past. Putting, placing, laying simple cement slabs exposes the silhouette of a lost, past house. Through this the way goes through - way through.
With his sculptural interpretation of the location, the artist succeeds in convincingly exposing the site and its history.
Martin Schönfeld
(20. Juni 2018)
The installation "Way Through" by Pascal Brateau at the rosengarten in Treptower Park
In his sculptural oeuvre, the house plays an important role as a three-dimensional body, thus expanding its architectural practice in a sculptural dimension. Pascal Brateau installs his houses in special locations and reacts to the particular spatial situation in his particular form.
The work realized here relates to the district anniversary of 450 years Treptow in a special way.
The location reference pursued by Pascal Brateau also proves here on the rose garden. His installation "Way Through" takes up the givens of the open path and its materiality quite concretely. This way is designed with square washed concrete slabs. This is followed by Brateau in terms of material and dimensions. He piled them up into a wall differentiated in height. The path literally straightens, its two-dimensional surface developing into a sculptural form. Brateau thinks the continuity of the way in three-dimensions.
The profile of the height development rises first only flat with only one slab, continues with the stratification of 3 slabs on, increases to 6 slabs and wins over the strength of only 10, then 15 and finally 21 stacked concrete walkway slabs its finite height. The height development is reminiscent of a mathematical series, the altitude jump exponentiates each one slab.
The design of the gradually rising slabs includes an interior, and the use of diagonally cut slabs gives the installation a direction. The massiveness of the wall built up with the slabs is almost broken right in the middle of the installation. Here the acute angles of the halved concrete slabs almost only touch, and the background shines through carefully.
While Brateau uses the house as a sculptural archetype in his previous installations, his installation on the rose garden defines the house as a negative form. The height development of the path forms a frame, and the inscribed gable image of a house now appears as a two-dimensional recess. The house mentioned here no longer stands, but rather lies on the floor as a picture of a house gable - perhaps a picture of the past?
The concrete slabs spread out by the artist Pascal Brateau thus look like an exposure. They call up the image of an archaeological site as if a past layer had been dug up and uncovered there. As a result of the "excavation" the two-dimensional gable-picture of a house appears. And that brings us to the story of 450 years of Treptow. Pascal Brateau points out that history manifests itself in the dwelling of people. Only with the dwelling does the human being and the civilization history of a place or a region become documented. He sees the image of the past as a two-dimensional one inscribed in a plasticized present but no longer forming a three-dimensional body. The Way, our - "Way Through" - leads through the past into the present. The house of the past represents an archaeological void.
This historical dimension of the art posed by Pascal Brateau corresponds to the artistic working method of laying and layering the concrete slabs. They correspond to the geological time pattern of layers of the earth and may therefore rise to 21 stone layers - in a sense corresponding to the 21st century. What sounds so symbolic reveals itself as an extraordinarily direct and simple approach. The artwork integrates into the given structures of the place. It works with an ordinary restrained material, an inconspicuous and almost imperceptible material. This is hardly subjected to any individual artistic treatment. The work is based on the laying of artistic work material, so that it seems almost fragile and unstable. If we did not know that the individual plates are glued together, we could be worried about the possible collapse of the plate piles. The result is a restrained artistic appearance that could almost be confused with a construction site. This simplicity and withdrawal makes the appeal of the work, which convinced the jury against the also very appealing proposals of Bettina Khano and Susanne Kessler in the competitive process.
Pascal Brateau's working principle could be put with the three verbs, put, place, lay. The artist forms with his action, but not with an individual shaping of materials and details. Brateau has also based this principle on his previous installations and sculptures, which seem to have been layered, even if they are piled high up in the sky. Brateau is thus following in the footsteps of minimalism, an art movement from the late 1960s, which was primarily anchored in the US and aimed at a reduction to simple geometric structures and the seriality raised to the design principle. Well-known artists of minimalism in the fine arts were, for example, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Sol Le Witt and a few others.
By analogy, Brateau takes the given situation as a graphic structure, from which he derives his concept and inserts his thoughts into this structure. Buried in it, he finds the image of the past, a house of the past. Putting, placing, laying simple cement slabs exposes the silhouette of a lost, past house. Through this the way goes through - way through.
With his sculptural interpretation of the location, the artist succeeds in convincingly exposing the site and its history.
Martin Schönfeld
(20. Juni 2018)
