terminal experience of wordless thought karolina halatek designboom 

 

terminal, the oversized light sculpture by polish artist karolina halatek, stands just like a recently landed UFO in the middle of the rathausplatz town hall square in gerlingen, germany. on the occasion of the light art festival ‘aufstiege’ by kulturregion stuttgart, the artist’s work was chosen by the curator of the festival joachim fleischer, alongside andrea löhle (city of gerlingen) and jean-baptiste joly –director of akademie schloss solitudeuses.

terminal experience of wordless thought karolina halatek designboom
(above and main) image © karolina halatek

 

 

karolina halatek uses light as a key element and material in her work to highlight its power as something real and yet not tangible. ‘light is a means to simply express things’, says the artist in an interview for her sculpture in gerlingen. with light, she creates empirical site-specific spaces at the surface of the visual, architectural, and sculptural. the artistic intention coincides almost exactly with the aesthetic objective of the light art festival ‘aufstiege’ by kulturregion stuttgart –which the curator joachim fleischer describes as a ‘discovery through light‘.

terminal experience of wordless thought karolina halatek designboom
image © karolina halatek

 

 

in an interview with stuttgarter nachrichten, karolina halatek goes into the meaning of the word ‘terminal’ and explains how she was influenced by the near death experiences reported by people once consciousness was regained. indeed, the noun ‘terminal’ is a synonym for final stop or end station and as an adjective it marks a border that evokes the phase immediately before death. in such transcending experiences, there is often the speech of an enlightened tunnel –but it isn’t the artist’s intention to imitate this phenomenon through artificial means.

 

‘it is important to me’, says halatek ‘that the people who experience my light-sculptures will be a piece of my work, so it isn’t only something for them that they see and forget again’.

terminal experience of wordless thought karolina halatek designboom
the terminal experience of wordless thought: a source of light that shines on the square
image © karolina halatek

 

 

at night, the terminal becomes a light source that strangely isn’t from media nor street lamps — quite arbitrary, but still very poetic. it invites people to make a circuit to enter and cross the space. when the light in the tunnel is turned off, the presence of the filigree white sculpture clearly remains and gives the rathausplatz square a different spatial order. with its circular opening, the installation frames the round extracts of the urban space and prompts passersby to perceive the buildings at the edges of the square differently, in rare combinations.

terminal experience of wordless thought karolina halatek designboom
users become part of the installation — immersed in the experience of light
image © karolina halatek

terminal experience of wordless thought karolina halatek designboom
image © karolina halatek

terminal experience of wordless thought karolina halatek designboom
the terminal experience of wordless thought — evening time
image © karolina halatek

 

 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: lea zeitoun | designboom