Art at the ibc in Frankfurt
A recently
published catalogue documenting the latest commissioned works in Deutsche
Bank’s new headquarters for private and business clients in Frankfurt am
Main.
Heiner Blum, Wie und Wo, Photo: (c) Bärbel Högner
Deutsche Bank Collection
“You are here. Have a
nice day.” In his electronic orientation system How and Where
, these are the words the Frankfurt-based artist
Heiner Blum uses to greet visitors to the new headquarters of Business &
Private Clients opposite the Frankfurt Fair that
Deutsche Bank moved into in the spring of 2004. Set off by movement
sensors, text and image messages alternate on the displays spread
throughout the building. Along with information about the respective
location, the plasma screens show the pixeled portraits of over 240 staff
members, taken from the bank identity cards they provided as image
material.
Olaf Metzel, Cashflow and
Wallpiece
by Karin Sanders at the foreground, Photo: (c) Bärbel Högner
Deutsche Bank Collection
Cashflow, Detail, Photo: (c) Bärbel Högner
Deutsche Bank Collection
Oscillating between
functional technology and art installation, Heiner Blum’s work
simultaneously demonstrates several alternative paths for art in the
public space. The structural change within the bank has also radically
transformed art’s standing there, placing it before new challenges. Today,
the laptop and the Blackberry make it possible to work in a large
collective office, at home, or on the train. New media and technologies
equip the financial and art worlds with considerably greater mobility,
making the banking business more than just more virtual and anonymous.
|
Behind the
ibc’s natural stone facade, which was designed by
Christoph Mäckler, nearly 3,000 people work in around 30,000 square
meters of space in a transparent ambience defined by ultra-modern,
interconnected technology. New office concepts designed for flexibility
make the classical office suddenly seem out of date. In realistic terms,
however, “Art in the Workplace” is often lacking the walls to hang works
on. The bank is concentrating and reducing its architectural space, which
is increasingly designed to be transparent, as in the ibc in Frankfurt.
Ina Weber, Welcome to the Club, Photo: (c) Bärbel Högner
Deutsche Bank Collection
Now, the recently
published catalogue Art at the ibc shows how divergent artistic
concepts and aesthetic approaches can be integrated into this changed
working environment. With numerous texts, plates, and artist interviews,
seven commissioned works conceived for the ibc are introduced that set
standards in very different ways.
Günter Förg’s window images,
Karin Sander’s reflective wall pieces,
Olaf Metzel’s Cashflow, a gigantic steel and glass sculpture
suspended in space: from the atrium to the casino, which feature
Hubert Kiecol’s text works Happy Proportions and
Andreas Schulze’s painting series PBC, the catalogue invites
readers on a stroll throughout the building. The fact that art, as
everywhere in the bank, has to assert itself in the midst of stock
listings, large-scale screens, flip charts, and other everyday objects in
the ibc inspired the Berlin-based artist
Ina Weber to create an unusual work. Not without irony, Weber juxtaposes
the flexibility constantly being called for with a seemingly conservative
element – tradition. In Welcome to the Club, she installed a
clubroom in the classical English style with leather armchairs, fireplace,
and library between the hydro-culture plants and see-through think tanks.
Here, staff can relax or meet – free of worry, because the insufferable
coffee rings have already been woven into the carpeting.
Hubert Kiecol, Gückliche Maße, Photo: (c) Bärbel Högner
Deutsche Bank Collection
The catalogue
Art at the ibc costs 10 € and can be purchased online in our
art shop.
|
