Kunststrom
Nicolas Deshayes, Performance Electrics gGmbH, Lucy Joyce, umschichten
14 September 2019 – 28 March 2020
Exhibition
E-WERK Luckenwalde Gallery One, Gallery Three and Fluxdome
Kunststrom reflected on the utopian possibilities of energy, autonomy and production through a programme of commissions and exhibitions. Kunststrom confronted our changing industrial world with progressive optimism by identifying how culture, action and collaboration can build social consciousness and mobilize socio-political change. Set against the background of worldwide political turmoil in 2019 and the building's history, which since 1913 has witnessed extreme ideological upheaval, Kunststrom united contemporary art, industry and energy into a 'Gesamtkunstwerk' and seeked to challenge nihilism by offering a radical, international and optimistic vision of the future.
Kunststrom Für Alle, Performance Electrics gGmbH, 2019
Kunststrom für Alle is Performance Electrics’ largest, most ambitious and utopian sculpture to date, in which the not-for-profit energy provider has re-animated the mechanical infrastructure of the 1913 former brown coal power station to produce and supply renewable electricity on an industrial scale. E-WERK Luckenwalde once again produces enough energy to power both the building and local area as well as supply the national grid with 21st century art electricity: Kunststrom.
The re-activation of the Power Station has been supported by the Innogy Stiftung and Spanner Re2.
Hot Springs, Nicolas Deshayes, 2016
Hot Springs is a series of large, wall-based sculptures by artist Nicolas Deshayes that pump hot water through contorted interior channels so that they function as radiators. Fabricated in cast-iron, Hot Springs simultaneously references the history of industrial production for domestic use and the elemental base of all production – our planet’s iron core. Hot Springs is directly connected to E-WERK’s supply of Kunststrom (art power) and switched on – uniting art and renewable energy to form a dynamic and functional exhibition.
Hot Springs is funded by the Bundesprogramm Ländliche Entwicklung and kindly supported by Stuart Shave/ Modern Art.
Electric Blue, Lucy Joyce, 2019
Inspired by the history of E-WERK Luckenwalde, Electric Blue discusses ideas of power, protection, action and hope through a process of ‘thinking through making’. The work champions the inauguration of E-WERK through an installation of hand-painted flags and series of drawings, which sublimely place the building centre stage to emphasise its metaphorical and real circulation of energy. In order to access local attitudes and ‘think through the building’ Joyce invited seven Luckenwalde residents to participate as ‘arrow bearers’; each selected for their significant relationship to E-WERK, historically, presently and in the future. These participants included E-WERK’s former Production Manager Herr Schmiedl, Kunststrom Consultant Achim Sauermann and E-WERK’s then pregnant Artistic Director Helen Turner. Each person conceptually encircled E-WERK holding a mirrored arrow sculpture up high to guard, protect and honour the institution’s future and past – they themselves becoming sculptures. Joyce immortalised this gesture through seven maquettes, which have been embedded into the fabric of the Power Station.
Electric Blue is funded by the Bundesprogramm Ländliche Entwicklung and kindly supported by TH Wildau.
FLUXDOME, umschichten, 2019
FLUXDOME is a bespoke large-scale geodesic sculptural dome fitted with Kunststrom technology to host the institutions outdoor events and associated public programme. FLUXDOME draws on the Fluxus movement and Buckminster Fuller’s seminal ideas of co-production, autonomy and de-alienating industry made popular through his ‘spaceship earth’ and geodesic dome designs. Co-produced on site FLUXDOME showcases how it is possible to build low-tech stable structures for alternative living and energy production, and provokes questions concerning autonomy and decentralised power. FLUXDOME is an adapted beveled frame geo-dome design by Paul Robinson.
FLUXDOME by umschichten is the first edition of EW's E-PAVILION series; a commissioning programme of experimental functional sculpture. The pavilions will house the institution’s public programme and probe questions concerning the future of shared space and sustainable production.
E-PAVILION is funded by FONDS. FLUXDOME has been supported by HFM Nordholz Handelsgesellschaft.
