TANGENT, ATACAMA
«My dream is to build a huge tangent, placed in the curvature of the Earth.»
Felix proposes an in-situ work consisting of the installation of two T-shaped poles several kilometers away, whose horizontal lines, precisely aligned, will draw a tangent straight line, which only touches the curvature of the Earth at its center. In this case, the poles would be the visible part of a much larger construction. A playful attempt to overcome the most existential and elementary forces of life: gravitation.
The Salar de Atacama, a lake of dry salt, its absolutely flat surface perfectly follows the curvature of the planet, is the ideal place to experiment with the shape and forces of our planet formally.
These elements installed in the desert will be forgotten for years, then rediscovered and reinterpreted by their discoverers. This will generate questions about its real meaning of existence giving way to various interpretations and new myths for the future.
In a second work, Felix will install two metal bars, one set in the Atacama desert and another in the Gobi desert, in Mongolia, thus drawing a piercing through two extremities of the planet.
Felix Kiessling’s practice is characterized by extensive fieldwork and research into environmental forces, and many of his works experiment with ideas of space, emptiness, weight and gravitation. Kiessling describes his artistic material as at the interface between things that we see, that which we individually construct, and fact.
Kiessling is part of the Berlin collective, Das Numen, which investigate experimental ways to study space and biological systems and the feelings associated with them. Blending art and science, they translate their exploration of natural phenomena in the urban context into aesthetic environments that sensitize the viewers to the world around them.
Felix Kiessling, born on the 1st of January 1980 in Hamburg, lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Kiessling pursued his master degree under professor Olafur Eliasson at the University of Arts Berlin and Institut for Spacial Experiments, Berlin. His work has been exhibited in various international exhibitions and institutions, including the 5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, the Marrakech Biennale 2012, Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland, Schinkel Pavillon, Neue National Gallerie, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and Sprengel Museum, Hannover.