«Höhere Gewalt» (2014) – [eng]

«Höhere Gewalt» is the title of this sculpture. It’s a new kind of sculpture.

This new kind of sculpture is hung on the ceiling, it comes from the top, it falls from the top. It follows the law of gravity. The ground and the walls or windows at the ‘Schinkel Pavillon’ stay spotless, a breakthrough is not possible there. The only space worth considering for “Höhere Gewalt” is the ceiling, this is how this sculpture found his place there. The ceiling is the unique “free space”, but not only – it is also a place on which the gravity force can be exerted – as the title does indicate – with the greatest obviousness. It is the gravity force that makes it fall from the top. And it is from the top that a breakthrough is possible downwards, this kind of violence from above nothing can resist to. “Höhere Gewalt” (‘Force Majeure’) as a breakthrough.

The collapse occurs by a strength from above, because of an external strength, an endless strength, a non-commensurable strength. It could be a leak, a flood, an explosion, a material failure or an inattention, an accident. The ceiling collapsed, fell down, and with it, everything that was hidden above my head too – the non-shown and the hidden chaos. It reveals all I could not see. And suddenly, because of the gravity force, everything pours, all is spread out and all is on view an creates new links, new connections, new dynamics. The unseen mechanisms are revealed and become plainly visible. It is up to me to see in this chaos, to pay close attention and to be wide-awake. To make visible the invisible, – thanks to the law of physics – that is what « Höhere Gewalt » can do and shows. It is a “critical sculpture”, a “critical corpus”.

This breakthrough, which comes from above, can not be avoided; it is compelling.

This sculpture, this breakthrough, this “critical corpus” is about to fall on my head and I can not run away from its new logic, its implacable logic. The ‘Force Majeure’ is pitiless and makes me watch. I have to raise up my head, I have to open -wide- my eyes and confront what I do not want to see with “Höhere Gewalt”. This is the logic, this is the form and the mission of this new sculpture work.

Thomas Hirschhorn, April 2013