Pendulum House (Austria)
THE PENDULUM HOUSE – A Small Step to Infinity
“What did we do when we unchained the earth from the sun? Where are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plummeting unceasingly? Is there still an above and below? Are we not straying through an infinite nothingness? Does the empty space not breathe upon us? Has it not become colder?” (Nietzsche – The Gay Science)
The Foucault Pendulum of the Paris Pantheon reflects time, space and attractive force. The site rotates – together with its visitors – around the resting pendulum, which becomes one with the universe.
A house becomes a pendulum and permits travel from earth to the universe in a single step. It hangs from a cable and does not touch the ground. It greets the visitor through an open entrance and hovers 30 cm above the floor. In doing so it creates a situation of frantic standstill, where the reduced process of movement casts people back to themselves and their reality.
In the same measure that the earth is becoming subjectively smaller and technology and industry are accelerating, temporal measure and temporal experience continue to come undone. The extraordinarily rapid overcoming of great distances unsettles human perceptions of time. To cope with this frenzied tempo, we pause in physical motionlessness.
The 20 meter-high design of the Pendulum House creates space to question the consequences of belief in progress. Methods of delay, pausing and stopping become visible. Where art halts the gaze, an open mind and precision of cognition arise; a subversive refusal of speed, a still encounter with one’s own planetary soul.
THE PENDULUM HOUSE
Idea und conception: Robert Jelinek
Promoter: State of Sabotage
Dimensions:
Steel construction: Height 20 metres
House: 350 x 350 x 450 cm .
Informations on location:
Kittenberger Erlebnisgärten
Laabergstrasse 15, Schiltern/Langenlois, Austria
0043-2734-8228-0
office@kittenberger.at
www.kittenberger.at
Tickets & Info: free admittance, open all day
