Übergordnete Werke und Veranstaltungen

Geld und Leben & Das AB & ZU Tor

DE 1998

The second room we enter from the hall is the so-called billiard room. It is well preserved. The wood panelling, the impressive wooden ceiling and the fine-grained blue wallpaper lend the room a somewhat solemn atmosphere. Rupprecht Matthies has cut out from Perspex and wood the words Moneten, Kies, Kohle, Asche, Knete, Kröten, Schotter, Mammon, Mäuse, Piepen, Pinke, Bares, Taler, Zaster (all slang words for money in German), and other important words such as und (and), oder (or), vor allem (above all), wie denn (how), erst recht (all the more) and hung them from the ceiling and walls of the billiard room with nylon threads to create an explosive, colourful composition of possible contexts. Are these the words once spoken in this room that have somehow materialised? Each single word bears a relation not only to its immediate environment – for example the transparent locker (loose) hanging by the window or the dark-red usw. (etc.) crawling over a piece of wood – but also conjures up numerous word associations which are somehow always wrong and always right. We take immediate pleasure in our own ideas and in the call to join in the inventive process which is the semantic product of a series of words like Kies, Kohle, Knete, etc. But at the same time, each individual word-object insists on its material independence and separateness. Unlike Adib Fricke, who always carries out extensive research to insure that his invented words, or protonyms, do not have a meaning in any language before he gives them an extremely normative form, Matthies uses every-day oft repeated words which, through their individual form (material, size, colour, sheen and in particular the „handwriting" of the cut-out letters), become valuable unique pieces. Whether it is installed in the space or simply held in the hand, each word suddenly takes on something akin to a personality.
...
Next to the main entrance of the Werkleitz Youth Club is the Voluntary Fire Service, where until recently there was one of those rusty old gates which can be found in many houses of the village Tornitz. This is now the site of the brand-new, multicoloured „AB & ZU Gate" (pun: NOW & THEN and OPEN & CLOSED) built by Rupprecht Matthies together with workers from the Henschel Smithy, as his second contribution to the exhibition of the 3rd Werkleitz Biennale. The right-hand side of the gate proclaims a merry „JETZT IST GUT" (IT'S ALL RIGHT NOW), the text framed by radial metal bars. This broadcasts a pleasant feeling of work done and also proclaims an indefinite presence: thus it is a heart-felt response to Höller's monumental „Together into the Future". The left-hand side of the gate, however, with its „AB & ZU", oscillates between thoughtful consideration and clear functional references to the opening and closing of the gate. The 2 x 3 metre high gate will remain in the village after the four days of the Biennale are over, as a gift from both the artist and the Henschel company.

Rupprecht Matthies (D), Geld und Leben, about 100 word objects, coloured acrylic glass, polyethylene and PVC

Rupprecht Matthies (D), Das AB & ZU Tor, forged steel gate, painted, 298 x 200 cm

Geld und Leben & Das AB & ZU Tor

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