Heike Klussmann visits Constantin Brâncuşi’s Coloana Infinitului in Târgu Jiu, Romania.

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.

Heike Klussmann
KAUFHOF
September 24 - October 29