Bea Otto relates in her work directly to existing sites. They build the framework and starting point of a specific sculptural process of appropriation and transformation. In her exhibition she explores the meaning of the Ludwig Forum itself as a place, its architecture and also its experienced space by questioning and transforming it through openings and obstructions, shifts and breaches. The artist, resident in Aachen, investigates the ambivalence between the rough urban space of the Jülicher Straße on the one hand and on the other the museum space, protected yet shielded due to its construction.
Bea Otto barricades the former main entrance of the umbrella factory with a wooden fence, the construction-side facing the street: an encroachment that raises questions about mechanisms of in- and exclusion. A former side entrance is simultaneously opened and blocked by a photographic intervention. Already in the run-up to the exhibition, these locations were marked as transitory places using photographs depicting a gray museum curtain and the reverse side of a torn poster.
On the interior of the façade, simultaneously, in the exhibition space, the artist uncovers obstructed windows and removes the skirting boards. The industrial architecture becomes permeable and is allowed to expand. Space is inside and outside – threshold situations arise, not only spatially and temporally structured, but experienced by the human body. A used sleeping mat sets the space in juxtaposition to human proportions and raises questions about temporary housing, passageway or place to stay. A temporary and fragile moment is inherent in the provisional materials and objects trouvé but is shifted and located through their precise positioning and processing. Further interventions made by the artist, such as a projection and a floating, insular platform, let expanse and void become tangible and describe a transitory space, moving between inside and outside.
Bea Otto (*1964) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf as a master student of David Rabinowitch, at the Gerrit Rietveld Akademie, Amsterdam and the Arts Students League, New York. She received scholarships, among others, from the DAAD, Kunststiftung NRW and Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn.
Curated by Dr. Brigitte Franzen and Holger Otten
Bea Otto – out there, Installation Views
Photos: Carl Brunn / Ludwig Forum Aachen
