Wolves at the Deutsche Guggenheim
Cai Guo-Qiang’s
spectacular installation "Head On"
Vortex,
2006,
Sammlung Deutsche Bank,
Foto:
Hiro Ihara, Courtesy of Cai Studio
99
wolves, an exploding house, and a huge drawing with gunpowder – the
three-part installation Head On by Cai Guo-Qiang was made as a
commissioned piece for the Deutsche Bank Collection in Berlin. In it, the
Chinese art star, who realizes his elaborate projects all over the globe,
reflects on the history and present of the German capital. Cai’s first
major show in Germany can be seen in the exhibition hall at Unter den
Linden starting on August 26.
Cai
Guo-Qiang Making of Vortex, 2006,
Foto:
Hiro Ihara, Courtesy Cai Studio
A loud bang
and flying sparks accompanied the making of Cai
Guo-Qiang’s gunpowder drawing for his exhibition Head
On at the Deutsche
Guggenheim. Clouds of grey smoke and the smell of sulfur filled the
atrium of the Deutsche Bank building at Unter den Linden. The artist’s
assistants immediately rushed towards the huge sheet of Japanese paper
spread out on the floor of the atrium, still weighed down with stones and
covered in stencils and cardboard.
Cai
Guo-Qiang,
Foto Donald Milne,
©Sammlung
Deutsche Bank
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As the upper layers were quickly cleared away and the last
embers on the paper carefully extinguished, Cai’s gunpowder drawing
“Vortex,” made with a combination of precise planning and the incalculable
force of the explosion, became visible for the first time. In the work,
silhouettes of a pack of wolves can be seen forming a huge spiral.
Together with the video work “Illusion II” and a pack of 99 wolves tearing
through the exhibition hall, the 9 x 4 meter-sized drawing is a central
part of the installation “Head On,” which can be seen from August 26
through October 15 2006 at the Deutsche Guggenheim.
Illusion
II: Explosion Project, 2006, Berlin,
Foto:
Hiro Ihara
Courtesy Cai Studio
The
three-part installation, developed for his first major exhibition in
Germany, reflects the main aspects of Cai’s oeuvre; at the same time, it
frames a thematic reference to the history and present of Berlin. Like all
previous presentations of work groups from the Deutsche
Bank Collection, Head On arose in close collaboration with the
artist. Cai specially conceived all three parts of the installation for
the exhibition location, while the video and gunpowder drawing Vortex
were produced on site in Berlin.
Ideenskizze
für Vortex, 2005 © Cai Guo-Qiang
Cai
was in the German capital for the first time in October 2005 and visited
major places of German history there, including Checkpoint
Charlie and the remnants of the Berlin
Wall as well as the Soviet
Monument and the Topography of
Terror memorial. Inspired by the omnipresence of German history, he
made his first sketches for the exhibition, after which a concept
developed out of these ideas that contains references to the various media
that Cai Cuo-Qiang employs as well as addresses the city in terms of
content and the exhibition space itself in terms of form.
Aufbau
der Installation "Head On", 2006, im Deutsche Guggenheim
Foto:
Hiro Ihara, Courtesy Cai Studio
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