In Berlin Alexanderplatz Kaufhof Reverse, I reconstruct the view surrounding the Kaufhof department store (formerly the Centrum Warenhaus). Four facade panels, each 160 x 560 cm, have been assembled from 4,084 individual images, photographed from the inside looking out through the holes in the building’s “honeycomb” facade. The view of the building takes on a double meaning. Assembling the individual perspectives creates a view of the building, with its unmistakable honeycomb structure, as a negative form of the view from within. The viewer is presented with a perspective that seems to suggest that the architecture itself is looking out at its surroundings like a living thing.

In the film of the same name, Berlin Alexanderplatz Kaufhof Reverse, the views from this multifaceted architectural eye become a film sequence, set in motion at a rate of 24 frames per second. The result is a fictive tracking shot through the interstices of the facade, simulating a mechanical scan of the four views.

Photographic and film montage consisting of 4,084 small-format photographs, each taken through one of the holes in the “honeycomb” facade of the former Centrum Warenhaus, from the inside looking out. Reassembled into four facade panels, each 160 x 560 cm, and a 16-mm film, 2:43 min. + 7 frames, loop.

The former Centrum Warenhaus department store on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, today the Galeria Kaufhof, was renovated in 2004–05, and in the process its distinctive aluminum “honeycomb” facade was removed. However, it was never possible to see the building naked: For one thing, the facade was covered in building wrap during disassembly, but more importantly, the construction process dictated that the old building be progressively replaced by the new one, piece by piece. As a result, the interface between old and new was never visible.

With the animation Digistrip, Heike Klussmann fulfilled her desire to see the Centrum Warenhaus naked, replacing the aluminum facade pixel by pixel. Each click becomes a still in the film. The facade is digitally dismantled, in a process determined by the capacities of digital tools. Animation created from 1,815 individual frames, 1:12 min. + 15 frames.

Digistrip is the animated complement to Realstrip.

The former Centrum Warenhaus department store on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, today the Galeria Kaufhof, was renovated in 2004–05, and in the process its distinctive aluminum “honeycomb” facade was removed. In the film Realstrip, we see one section of the facade being disassembled piece by piece. The film begins with the removal of the first piece of the facade from the upper left corner of the frame and ends with the last piece being carried out of the bottom right corner. DV, 11 hours 12 min.

Realstrip is the documentary complement to Digistrip.

The facade of the Centrum Warenhaus (später Kaufhof) consisted of a total of 3,927 modules. Material: coated sheet aluminum. Each module consists of two halves screwed together. Shape and dimensions of all modules are the same (W 67.5 cm x H 205 cm x D 42.2 cm). Each module was offset from its neighbors and connected to them by a total of eight screws. Module dimensions: gross surface area (top) 0.29 m2, gross surface area (front) 1.38 m2, mounted surface area (including gaps) 1.96 m2, flattened surface area 2.03 m2, sheet thickness 0.002 m, material volume 0.00406 m3, average weight 11 kg (10.8–11.4 kg). Total weight of all modules: approximately 43.2 t. Calculated dimensions: facade height = n (modules) * 1.45 m + 0.6 m; facade width = n (modules) * 1.35 m; stack height (tolerance ±0) = n (modules) * 0.18 m + 0.253 m, e.g. for a stack of ten modules, height = 10 * 0.18 m + 0.253 m = 2.053 m

Segment 5/2 -5/4, 17 - 20

On April 30, 2005, the Kaufhof department store (formerly the Centrum Warenhaus) auctioned off part of its own facade on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. The individual facade sections were presented in a stall on the square and sold by a professional auctioneer. Passersby showed little interest. Heike Klussmann joined the crowd and bid on the sections, thereby staging the actually occurring event.

Sections of the aluminum facade of the Kaufhof department store (formerly the Centrum Warenhaus) on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, which the artist had melted down into raw aluminum ingots after the facade was auctioned off on April 30, 2005.

www.berlinischegalerie.de/berlin8909

Lecture with Stadt im Regal at Künstlerbund Berlin.

www.kuenstlerbund.de

The Super 8 animation Kaufhof off the Reel shows me in my studio, apparently building a structure with a watering can. This appearance, however, is revealed to be a process of deconstruction shown in reverse.

In 2005 Heike Klussmann dismantled and stored the facade of the Hotel Stadt Berlin on the Alexanderplatz (built 1967–70, later renamed the Forum Hotel, today the Park Inn). It will be reused, in the tradition of architectural spoils, in a new structure, together with the facades of the Haus des Lehrers, the Kaufhof and the Palast der Republik.

Heike Klussmann: Monochrom City, Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel, 2005

Professor for Art & Architecture at the University of Kassel, Germany, since 2005

Set up of the collaborative research network Building Art Invention at the University of Kassel. This transdisciplinary research group, which brings together expertise from the fields of visual art, architecture, urban planning, interaction design, experimental physics and materials research, has positioned itself in an area of contemporary developments that can be described as “intelligent surfaces.”

www.uni-kassel.de/asl