Zwischen TŸr und angel* (on the point of leaving)
*('angel' is in quotation marks in this german saying, because the german word 'angel' = 'hinge' belongs here normally, but in this case here the ENGLISCH word 'angel' is meant to be conotated as well 'angel'='hinge')
Opening speech at the occasion of the exhibition of
Christine Carstens
29. 09. 2005 in EINSTELLUNGSRAUM e.V., Hamburg

Sigrid Puntigam

 
Dear friends and guests of EINSTELLUNGSRAUM.
I am pleased to wellcome you to the exhibition of Christine Carstens within the year project 2005 of the EINSTELLUNGSRAUM paradise and car. The artist presents to you her 'autopie' for the subject 'paradise' with her room installation "zwischen TŸr und angel*."
 
You probably have just left your car and still have the muted sound of closing the door in your ear. no later do you open again a door and you are 'zwischen TŸr und angel' (on the point of leaving) and are invited by the artist into her fictional car space which will take you to an imaginary trancelike ride.
A door sign of the room-service on the window of the former flower shop defines subtly the border between inside and outside. The reading Bitte nicht stšren (do not disturb) in red is facing the inside , the visitor, and asks for reflection of the surroundings; bitte den Raum aufrŠumen (please tidy up) on green background is meant as a request towards the outside for the passer-byers, the street, where the traffic is rushing by without interruption. An apple in the hook points to the subject: the story of paradise.
So according to the artist you are asked to use the carpenter effect "wonach jede Vorstellung einer Bewegung den Antrieb zur AusfŸhrung nach sich zieht" (according to which each imagination of a movement is followed by the urge to do it). In the wall installation the doors are opened like wings, they can lift up.
As in the brochure of the carmaker Audi:
because "am schnellsten ist der Mensch im Kopf- Mit bis zu 432 km/h flitzen unsere Gedankenstršme durch unser Gehirn.  Sie sind es, die uns wirklich bewegen.  Sie ermšglichen es uns, auf die Idee zu kommen, Sprintre- korde aufzustellen, zu fremden Sternen zu reisen oder ein všllig neues Auto zu bauen.  Ob nun schnell oder langsam - Leben ist Bewegung.  Sie bestimmt alles, was wir tun und was um uns herum passiert.  Man entdeckt sie Ÿberall.  Sie bringt uns weiter als nur von A nach B - und ist meistens nicht in Stundenkilometern zu messen.  Bewegung beginnt im Kopf."
"Ein Audi, bei dem Fahrspa§ genauso wichtig ist wie intelligentes Vorankommen.......... Das Ziel im Visier.  Sinnvoll unterwegs sein hei§t da ankommen wo man hinwill."
"NO STOPPING ANY TIME"

("the human being is fastest in his head - with up to 432 km/h our streams of thought dart through our brain. They are what really makes us move. They make it possible to get the idea, to set sprint records, to travel to faraway stars or to build a completly new car. If slow or fast - life is movement - it rules everything what we do and what happens around us. It brings us further than from A to B - and mostly is not measurable in km/h. Movement starts in the head."
"An Audi, with which driving fun is as important as intelligently making headway...the goal in  vision. To be on the go with reason means to arrive where one wants to get to."
"NO STOPPING ANY TIME"

But do you know the inner life of this car door?
Christine Carstens practises deconstruction here and shows what we always perceive from the outside from inside. She designs her object out of the original inner doors of the Audi A2. These hemp fillings pressed together with polyster resin are positioned as wings slanted at either side, in their inner sides are crouching two angels.  One of them sits contemplating positioned like A. DŸrers Melancholia, the other on the driver's side is pulling its hair. Are these geniuses or manes?
 
The middle between the doors is taken by an unfinished hemp mat which has glittering balls on it. It pictures the floor of the dream world. Hemp leaves raise like bubbles which as we know will burst.

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