Julia Kaulen
On the street - 24 places. RWTH Aachen (Germany)
"On the street - 24 places between Vaals and Eydtkuhnen" is a series of 32 colourprints. The first eight plates illustrate the 1400 kilometers long course from Vaals to Eydtkuhnen. The following 24 images give an impression of this route by picturing selected topi.
To design the world, we have to take a precise look at it first. That’s why "On the street" is not an architectural draft, but rather one on how to look at the world. Consequently the pictures show the as-is-state of our customary surrounding.
The project refers to “53 Stations of the Tokaido“, that illustrate the post-stations along Japan’s main travel and transport artery. These spots, so-called meisho, got famous through their repeated reception in poetry.
According to this, the street is also taken as a basis of this project. Having been meaning-laden and prestigious in ancient times, today the street is the embodiment of an unloved, infrastructural building. Within this project it becomes a setting for a romantic travel, a Grand Tour along german meisho.
The street guides the observer through situations of diverse spatial context, awareness level, scale and function. All places are seen equally next to each other. By being selected and exhibited, each topos is assumed to have particular value which is proven by an allocation of analogies.
When looking at the series on the whole, there is one common ground: All pictures deal with the liaison of banality and monumentality.
„When I give the commonplace a higher meaning, the customary a mysterious appearance, the known the dignity of the unknown, the finite the illusion of the infinite, I romanticize it“, said Novalis. This is not only a concept to look at the world, but also a strategy for designing it and make it a little more beautiful.
SCHUNCK cannot guarantee the correctness of content and expression. The participants themselves are responsible for their entries. The copyright of the projects underlies to the authors, any reproduction or use of the shown material is strictly forbidden.