Het ballet van de kijkers

About this artwork.

Anyone who enters the hall in the Groningen provincial government building, will see ten antique binoculars identified by metal rods. They hang there motionless, their 'eye' focused on what is happening in the reception hall. But as you approach the work, a buzzing and humming becomes audible. The mechanics (invisible electric motors in the viewers) are used to create voltage. The binoculars scan the space and try to spot the visitor. Each of them move in their own way.

Binoculars produced both distance and proximity. On the one hand, you remain at a safe, invisible distance. On the other hand, a world is brought closer that cannot be clearly seen with the naked eye. This game of keeping distance and seeking contact runs like a common thread through Rebecca Horn's work.

To collect the binoculars, Horn scoured antique and flea markets herself. Every binocular is unique, each with their own character and history.

About the assignment.

In the mid-1990s, a new part was added to the provincial government building. Part of the construction budget was intended for art. To properly map out the wishes, the province set up a special workgroup. For the entrance hall, this working group came up with the assignment for a spatial work that had to be clearly recognizable and fit well into the environment. It also had to be visible from outside to passers-by, possibly enticing them to enter.

The workgroup unanimously thought that Rebecca Horn would be the ideal artist. After a visit to her studio in Frankfurt, her design with the binoculars was also unanimously chosen. The work was made possible thanks to a contribution from the Mondriaan Fund.

About Rebecca Horn

Rebecca Horn (Michelstadt, 1944) is a German visual artist, best known for her installation art, film direction and her body modifications such as Einhorn (Unicorn), a body-suit with a very large horn that crosses vertically from the main piece. She recorded the films Der Eintänzer (1978), La ferdinanda: Sonata für eine Medici-Villa (1982) and Buster's Bedroom (1990). In 1993, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York hosted a mid-career retrospective of Horn's work; it was the first solo exhibition that the museum dedicated to a woman. The exhibition then traveled to the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Kunsthalle Wien, and Tate Gallery in London, among others. Horn currently lives and works in Paris and Berlin.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Rebecca Horn

• District
  Centrum

• Year of creation
  1996

• Art type
  Art in / on a building, New media

• Material
  Electric motors, Binoculars

• Dimensions
  divers