“If we are dead, so it is.”
It is kind of a new vision if you stand in the middle of a 40 m wide miniramp and look to the left and to the right… it is wide.
Michel Majerus created this symbiosis of art and skate ramp in 2000, having in mind how the perspective of the prints on the ramp will change when you not just look at it but roll over it…. Yeah, this kind of art and brain manipulation. At first he even thought about building some kind of tube. This would have been, in reference to his plan sketches, damn hard to skate.
The title is quite prophetic concerning the artist’s death on a plane crash in 2002. RIP and thank you for pleasuring us with you creativity beyond your mortal life.
Even the ramp is not the best built one and the measurements could be improved (which they can not – for artistic reasons). It is amazing to have an open ramp that big in your town and to surf it. To add to the good news, the Kunst und Ausstellungshalle Bonn is neither fencing the ramp nor requesting helmet or pads for your decent ride.
If you show up, please respect the quiet hours between 10 pm and 10 am, be nice and enjoy the rest of the playable art accompanying the ramp in the exhibition “Playgorund”… it is perfect to bring your whole family and keep them occupied as long as you roll.
Lenni Jansen, Tim Rebensdorf, Jim Romer, Tom Schulze Tom Tieste and Tobi Hees already ripped the ramp alive during the Museumsmeilenfest. Here are some impressions.
Photography and words by Jo Hempel.
www.johempel.com
Fuck the intention of the artist, praise his work… and enjoy the ride… till 28th of October.