iMDC03 zum Download (pdf)

two Lighthouses
for the mDc
text barbara Urban
tran s lation carOL ObErschmiDt
In the middle of a small wooded area on the Buch Campus, two lighthouse
structures stand on the left and right side of the road leading to the new
Experimental Research Center (ERC). People passing by for the first time are
amazed by the play of colors emanating from the installation. The colors of
the beacons change depending on the distance and angle of the viewer.
Lighthouse beacons are important navigation aids for ships. They can be
seen from afar and are a visible signal even at night to distant ships seeking
their way. The beacons of Eliasson’s light houses on campus look exactly like
those in real lighthouses and are made of so-called Fresnel lenses, which
were developed in the early 19th century by Augustin Jean Fresnel, a French
physicist, to significantly reduce the weight and size of lenses in lighthouses.
Optical glass lenses with a short focal length are usually very thick and
consequently very heavy. The trick was to construct the lens out of concentric
annular sections known as Fresnel zones. The light is refracted depending on
the angle of the ring-like sections in relation to each other. There are two
types of Fresnel lenses used in beacons: the belt-like cylindrical type and the
headlight type.
But how did the Buch research campus come to have two lighthouses? They
are part of the Sculpture Park inaugurated on campus in the year 2000. In
the late 1990s the MDC acquired artworks for this park from funds of the
German Class Lottery. The idea was to support young artists and involve them
in the creation of the Sculpture Park. Thus, Olafur Eliasson, then 32 years old,
was asked if he could imagine creating something for the research campus
in Berlin-Buch. Like all other artists participating in the Sculpture Park, he
was allowed to pick the location for his installation. The first version Eliasson
designed for his contribution was an arc of water. For various reasons,
this idea could not be realized. Instead, Eliasson created a light installation
consisting of two lighthouses.
Lighthouses are a recurrent theme in Eliasson’s work of this period. In
1999 he positioned single lighthouses at five sites in Tuscany and entitled the
installation “Five Orientation Lights”. The five small light housesdivide the
CaMpus anD people
area in different sectors by illuminating
them in different colors. Their
light shines through Fresnel lenses
that are mounted in a multifaceted
glass enclosure made of colored
glass. Thus, according to Eliasson’s
work description, a secondary grid
is introduced to the landscape – not
by using the usual cartographic
methods but by means of a color
code. Much like in “Five Orientation
Lights”, the light installation in
Berlin-Buch consists of lighthouse
structures. Only here the two light
houses are positioned across the road
from each other. Both light sources
are assigned a color field, through
which the surrounding area is divided
into colored segments. During the
same period Eliasson created another
lighthouse installation south of
Malmö: “The Movement Meter for
Lernacken” (2000). It also consists
of two parts and is located not
far from the Øresund Bridge, the
combined highway-railway bridge
connecting Sweden and Denmark.
Eliasson’s lighthouse installations
extend the original meaning
of lighthouses. No longer are they
only navigation aids to determine
the exact position at sea. Rather,
they structure their surroundings
on land, thus arousing the viewer’s
curiosity. The installations “Five
Orientation Lights” or “Movement
Meter for Lernacken” are visible in
the countryside from a far distance.
Eliasson’s lighthouses captivate
people’s attention – some more so,
some less. On the Buch campus the
story goes that the lighthouses made
such an impression on a truck driver
that he brought his vehicle to a halt
right in front of them, believing they
must be some kind of light barrier.
He got out, walked through the color
spectrum, testing to see if anything
would happen. Nothing did, and after
a while he got back into his truck
and continued driving on his way…
imdc03 2012
83