| Project | public preposition white space/ Kritisches Denken braucht Zeit und Raum |
| Year | 2014 |
| Institution | Lichtfest Leipzig /DE |
| Place | Wilhelm-Leuschner-Straße, Leipzig /DE |
| Curator | Jürgen Meier, Marit Schulz |
| Technique | Fences, trusses, fog machines, lights, white tarpaulin Technical Realization: Fairnet |
| Thanks | Dieter Brehm, Gregor Jansen, Isabel Lott, Florian Matzner, Jürgen Meier, Ulrike Schlate, Marit Schulz, Reinhard Spieler, Jörg Wagner, Team LTM |
| Photographer | Maurice Kaufmann, Düsseldorf /DE Isabel Lott, Berlin /DE Alexander Schmidt, Leipzig /DE Caroline Sternberg, München/Munich /DE Benedikt Werner, Hannover/Hanover /DE Wolfgang Zeyen, Leipzig /DE Archive Mischa Kuball, Düsseldorf /DE |
white space/ Critical Thinking Needs Time and Space, Leipzig, 2014
Düsseldorf, Cologne, Leipzig, Berlin, Munich, Hanover, 2014
In 1989 a banner with the inscription “Critical Thinking Needs Time and Space—Here and Everywhere” appeared at the St. Nicholas churchyard. Shortly after the confrontation between demonstrators and police on the 40th Republic Day of theGDR, 70,000 peoplemarched in the streets of Leipzig, and not long after the wall came down. Twenty-five years after German reunification the artist reproduced the banner on the occasion of the Lichtfest in Leipzig. Going beyond a mere reenactment, the slogan was placed in public space in various German cities to transformthe demand into an invitation in a context independent of time and place. In Leipzig, Kuball rendered the text out of light in an open space on the edge of the Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz and in turn symbolically fulfilled the demand for intellectual freedom. The inaccessible “white space,” a 70,000 watt LED light field, brought to mind the citizens’ movement of the time and anchored the reflection in the need for critical thinking in current events. (JO)
