Ad Astra

Art in Architecture

Essen, DE
2023

In an inconspicuous, empty shop within the former Wertheim department store in the city centre of Essen’s Steele district, the artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke (b. 1978 in Tunis) has tapped into the existing ceiling architecture of exposed cables and pipes to produce the installation Ad Astra (To the Stars). Through a constellation of mirrors mounted on the ceiling, the artist creates the illusion of a supply infrastructure of infinite dimensions. It is with a gaze upwards that this subtle, analogue installation unfolds a seemingly infinite space. Not only does it establish a relationship to fictitious ‘astro-mining’ (short for asteroid mining), but the piece also links, in an ironic way, the glorification of space as a potentially unlimited source of raw materials to the region’s mining past.

Nadia Kaabi-Linke […] is especially interested in the correlation between political, economic, and sociocultural contexts, as well as in the related constructions of identity, memory, and perspective. In particular, the charged relations inherent to constructions of identity are frequently addressed in her works. Kaabi-Linke alienates objects, functions, and environments from their original contexts, works with optical illusions, and operates at the threshold between enchanting beauty, magical tricks, and unsettling interventions.

 

— Britta Peters, UKR

3-Dimensional

Media
Adaptive site-specific installation

Dimension
400 × 600 × 100 cm

Place
Globus-Center
Kaiser-Otto-Platz 1-5, 
45276 Essen-Steele

Exhibition
Das Ruhr Ding: Schlaf

Links
Ad Astra – Urbane Künste Ruhr

Mirrors are used to create infinite space, connecting space mining and regional history, NKL_Ad_Astra_2023Mirrors are used to create infinite space, connecting space mining and regional history, NKL_Ad_Astra_2023

Installation
Ad Astra, 2023

Site-specific immersive installation
at the Globus Center in Essen-Steele.

Commissioned by
Urbane Künste Ruhr in 2023

 

Address
Globus-Center
Kaiser-Otto-Platz 1-5
45276 Essen

Mirrors are used to create infinite space, connecting space mining and regional history, NKL_Ad_Astra_2023NKL_Ad_Astra_2023

A vacant store in the “Globus Center” in Essen was the venue for the installation.

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More Information

Lightpulse transformation of the infinite ceiling into an opaque mirror.

 

© Photo/Video: Kaabi-Linke Studio, 2023 | TiKL / Vg Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2023