AUSLEUCHTUNG (WELTALL, ERDE MENSCH)

LED lights, power generator, Residential Complex VI, Eisenhüttenstadt, 2020.

The work «Ausleuchtung (Weltall, Erde, Mensch)» is a three-dimensional extension and reinterpretation of Otto Schutzmeister’s 1960s mural Weltall, Erde, Mensch (Space, Earth, Man). The mural is located in the communal outdoor space of Residential Complex VI in Eisenhüttenstadt in Eastern Germany. With its expansive cosmic perspective, it reflects the city’s former ambition to embody an ideal socialist future. Today, this vision stands in stark contrast to the processes of demographic and urban decline that have reshaped Eisenhüttenstadt. At the same time, the central idea of the mural—to understand humanity in relation to the Earth and the cosmos—has acquired renewed urgency at a moment of growing planetary crisis. Ausleuchtung takes up individual elements of the mural, in particular its cosmic rays of light, and translates them into luminous spatial structures. In this way, the two-dimensional image extends into the surrounding space, transforming the site into a scenographically staged environment and a temporary meeting place for local residents. A vision of the future formulated in the past is thus reactivated and made tangible in the present.