THE GREAT KNOWLEDGE QUIZ - Duropal

ALBERT WEIS
THE ART
OF DESIGNING
SHOWROOMS
Finding Duropal at an exhibition is nothing unusual.
What is unusual however is when it is the ART FORUM
BERLIN, the ‘in’ international exhibition for contemporary
art. The ‘guilty party’ in this case is Albert Weis, an
artist from Berlin, with his installations which he presented
at a solo exhibition at the renowned Munich Gallery
Nusser & Baumgar Contempory. For this exhibition,
the skilled sculptor worked amongst other things with
aluminium and Duropal high-pressure laminates. As in
his early works, he thereby explored the flowing transitions
of real, model and notional space.
Top_ habitation, 2005/2008
(aluminium, Duropal high-pressure laminate, video projection)
For albert Weis, rooms are not static, lifeless forms. “Every room
has its own function and its history, which are reflected
in its appearance or its surface textures, which manifest
themselves in a particular shape and its structures.” 1
rooms are at the same time also living, because they are shaped
in different ways by human perception. His works of art there-
fore always incorporate the observer. Sometimes this takes place
quite subtly, just in passing so to speak. Weis’ approach to the
work therefore corresponds to that of an architect or interior
designer, although with a different objective. “These structures
[of the rooms] can overlap one another, and this almost
always points out discontinuities which I find interesting.
In my work, I take up such discontinuities and try to make
them visible.” anyone who goes along with this can make
some astounding discoveries.
For example the hall of a house, reproduced in the inside
of a sideboard, as in the work ‘habitation’. the sculpture,
created using aluminium and duropal high-pressure laminate,
refers in its dimensions to those of a housing complex by Le
Corbusier in Firmini/France. the aluminium profiles on the
inside are reminiscent of wall panelling from the 1960s. the
integrated video projection shows the empty corridor of the
housing complex in time-lapse. above the projection, the
interior of the sculpture becomes a real extension of the
projected space, incorporating the observer through the
reflection of the surface, and creating several spaces
in one place.
the play with reflections and the questioning of
architecture and spatial situations are central themes
which run through the many works of albert Weis.
Nor does he simply restrict himself to sculptures.
in many of his works, such as ‘the endings’ at the
1 Albert Weis, quoted from KONTEXT SPIEGELUNG STILLE in:
Robert Ryman, Retrospektive 1960–2000, with rooms
by Ariane Epars, Clay Ketter, Albert Weis, Beat Zoderer,
Ausst.-Kat. Haus der Kunst München, Ostfildern b.
Stuttgart 2000, S. 131 ff.