Wolf Kahlen Museum Bernau

FRAMING THE GLOBE
Concept of the installation
Kaoishung International Container Festival, Taiwan, 1999
Frame A
Frame A is the twin partner of Frame B.
Each one of the two is inseperable connected
with the other. Between both is a tension that holds
them together like the two sides of a coin.
They constitute each other.
Frame A is framing the least possible,
the smallest piece of ›matter‹ in our world:
The four parts of the rectangular frame press together:
Nothingness, zeroness, void.
If this is possible. At least, it is intended.
They cannot press together anything else than matter.
The immaterial, mind or spirit or THE INNER WORLD
still is contained within the least leftover space
in between the arrow points of the wooden parts.
That way the frame kind of frames the INNER WORLD.
Frame A tries to frame the definite,
but actually frames the infinite.
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Frame B
Frame B is the inverted version of Frame A.
Its four parts are joined together back to back.
This way the frame does not frame something within,
but opens up to the outside, frames the OUTER WORLD.
Each part of the frame ›frames‹ away from the center,
borders the infinite outside, which returns in infinite times
to the opposite part of the frame in order to be bounced
back into time and space again.
By accident (is there any?) the wooden frame pieces
establish a kind of Meru (Tibets holiest mountain Kailash)
or a threedimensional mandala. The summit of this
is a needle point, the ultimate zero, mind or spirit.
The material vastness outside culminates in the
ultimate point of nothingness.
The OUTER WORLD is centered in this.
Both frames, the frame for the INNER WORLD
and the frame for the OUTER WORLD
constitute the piece FRAMING THE GLOBE.
The function of a frame is to contain.
The frame contains something.
So does a container.