Piercing

City Hall Heidenheim/Brenz, DE 2001

A large high-grade steel ring ca. 2.4 meters in diameter is mounted at the level of the seventh upper storey on a corner of the Heidenheim/Brenz city hall. It pierces the wall of the building to appear again on the other side of the corner, resembling an earring. The rather drastic intrusion into the structural material of the building contrasts with the proud and identity-producing adornment of a flawlessly crafted, polished high-grade steel ring. Today, the decoration of our bodies is a widespread, everyday phenomenon. Tattooing and piercing have become visible on every street. If tattooing corresponds to painting on the body, then piercing, as a perforation of body volumes, is clearly a sculptural act. The perforating of the separating skin of the building shifts the intimate act of body decoration into the space of the visual arts. The ring points outward (public space) as well as inward (private space), thus uniting these two realms. In the final analysis, the concrete equating of the body, as a site of intimacy, pleasure, privacy, and exhibitionism, with the corpus of the building is a catalyst that addresses the essential questions of the public and private spheres.