Damocle

(Damocles)
Year 1983–91
A cuboid tunnel inside a hangar surrounded by other artworks. Several persons around.
People waiting outside the cuboid tunnel.
People walking through a cuboid tunnel. Sharp metal bars rise up from floor and down from ceiling.
A cuboid tunnel inside a hangar.
Environment AU, Art Basel, 1989
Corridor, 2 mirrors
Cuboid tunnel inside a room with black floor.
Evironment AU, Gallery Leerer Beutel Regensburg, 1990
Corridor, 2 mirrors, 13 panels with text fragments, mirrors in between

[…] If you go through the Damocles tunnel, past the swords which are already rammed into the floor, constantly trying to escape the spiky ends of the swords which are still stuck into the ceiling by doing a slalom race, you experience very tightly what it means to be exposed to a risk. And if the shock therapy was successful, then the mirror at the end of the tunnel will reflect a face in which the suspicion flashed up for a moment that Damocles’ decision to no longer test the load capacity of the horse’s hair was a rather reasonable decision. The sense of the irrit’action is nothing else. […]

Helmut Schneider (in: Irrit’actions)
White cuboid tunnel with wood sticks rise down from ceiling.
3 models stand on tables in a room covered with black plastic bags.
Model versions, 1983-86

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