Art|Unlimited

116 |Art Unlimited
MICHAEL SAILSTORFER
Title | If IShould Die in aCar Crash, It Was Meant to Be aSculpture, 2011
Media |Fiberglass, iron, rubber rope, cable, spotlight; dimensions variable
Artist |Michael Sailstorfer, *1979, Velden, Germany
Lives and works inBerlin, Germany
Gallery |König
Johann König
DE -10963 Berlin |Dessauer Strasse 6-7
Phone +49 30 26103080 |Fax +49 30261030811
info@johannkoenig.de |www.johannkoenig.de
Directors |Johann König, Erika Weiss
Artwork Description |Poised to be crashed, afiberglass sculpture awaiting its death, Michael Sailstorfer’s
shell ofaPorsche embodies the sentiments so often expressed since
Roland Barthes’s ‘Death of the Author.’ But Sailstorfer puts the personal back
into the creation, the biography of afilm star is here aligned with his own, if only
through the work’s nonsensical title. This fake 550 Spyder, aPorsche ‘kit car’
without the mechanics, or the wheels, is acar going nowhere.
It’s certainly not the first time Sailstorfer has used the car asamedium: among
others, his Drumkit is built from adismantled German police vehicle, and his
Time Is Not aMotorway is atire that runs itself naked, eroding eventually all of
its rubber against the wall. But If IShould Die inaCar Crash, It Was Meant to Be
aSculpture functions at acompletely different level. Itcould be seen, rather, as
akin tohis re-make of areadymade sign, adefunct radio sign from the former
East Berlin. The Porsche here, stripped bare, ascends into anallusion awaiting
what the viewer brings to it.
If IShould Die inaCar Crash,
It Was Meant to Be aSculpture,
2011
Exhibition view, CRASH, Zeppelin
Museum, Friedrichshafen, 2011