"EQUILIBRIUM, THE UNITY OF ALL" - Elbphilharmony Hamburg, Germany

in collaboration with Ina Rena Rosenthal

Client: City of Hamburg
Artist: Ina Rena Rosenthal
Photo credits: Ina Rena Rosenthal

Technique: Numerous layers of reality overlap and infuse each other in order to transform pure digital pixel designs into a pictorial appearance of unity and connectedness.

DESCRIPTION: The work "equilibrium, the unity of ALL" is located on floor 20 of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. The location with a fully glazed panoramic view of the Hamburg harbor is used partly privately and partly as an exclusive "meeting space" for conferences.

The 280 x 400 cm sliding glass door with two fixed and two movable elements was designed by artist Ina Rena Rosenthal as a prominent room divider between the kitchen and the open living and meeting area. Interior designer Bill März developed the property’s design concept with a focus on creating a contemplative and comfortable indoor environment.

Rosenthal has worked for over 20 years in a variety of media with a formal language of serially occurring circles, dots and lines. In her work, these grids and grids symbolize cosmically connected wholeness and create nurturing and constructive force fields. The circles and dots serve as energy carriers for light, love and peace, while the linear structures represent interconnectedness and universal inclusiveness.

In "equilibrium", digital image elements overlap on 22 levels to create a painterly composition. In a special process, the heart vibration of the client was recorded and applied as a stylized curve across the entire width of the door in gold using screen printing. In addition, the "sound-of-soul" process was used to create a conversion of the 45-minute heart rate measurement into sound images, which can be played throughout the object via the audio system.

The opening score of the Elbphilharmonie: "Pan", by Benjamin Britten - was sandblasted, plotted and airbrushed in white onto the movable glass elements of the door. The lines of music form a sensuous unity with one of the tuning forks, which is typical for the "Elphi", opposite. Other pictorial elements include water crystals, clouds, photographs of the Herzmusik session itself, a flute player and a format-filling Yin & Yang sign. Rosenthal has largely transformed the elements into grids to the point of complete abstraction and mirrored them in each other. In particular, the artist gave space in her design to the strongly varying light conditions and the visibility of the movable door elements on both sides. Through the interplay between opaque, opal, and fully transparent paint application, between matte and glossy coating, and through the treatments of the laminated glass panes on both sides in each case, the work attains its astonishing plasticity and density. The core message of the work concerns the interconnectedness of the individual with wholeness and of everything with each other. There is in fact no separation. Harmonious balance arises from the abundance and an exuberant joy of creation, which allows the equal, albeit different realities (levels) to interpenetrate each other vividly.

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