5+1 Agents for Architectonics

• Within the David Chipperfield Exhibitions, Sticks and Stones

• Commissioned work by Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin and Institut für Raumexperimente

  Medium: Red and Blue architectural chalk lines 

Four lines are marked on the floor of the space. Each of them is carefully snapped with architectural chalk lines tool upon mathematical and geometrical calculations based on 5 elements of nature.

Each line in the space is made with non-permanent blue chalk line tool. The lines reaching the borders of the gallery continue the same axis with red chalk lines until it hits either an architectural or natural element in the city. When it hits, for instance, to any elements of the Rohe’s compound, such as garden walls, sculptures, trees, the walls around and of the building it climbs up and continues. It reaches to the Philharmonie or to the National Library across the street, and it ends on the bank of the Canal.

The work is a a humble confrontation to Mies van der Rohe’s steel building that is created with sensitively geometrical calculations and transparency and David Chipperfield Architects’ interventions with natural elements. Mies van der Rohe’s architecture brings together ultimate geometrical calculations in the space without using any walls. He introduces natural elements himself at the sculptural garden on the west of the gallery space, which is perfectly fit into a rectangle. The garden’s floors still mimic the grids of the gallery space.

In reference to Mies van der Rohe’s building and David Chipperfield Architects’s interventions in the space, the work uses an architectural component chalk lines to make geometrical lines that is drawn with references from nature as the irregular and organic structure. As the chalk lines are mainly used to mark the locations of the walls, it is also an attempt to highlight Rohe’s act of not using any walls in this gallery space.

With a subtle reference to minimalism and eastern philosophy, the projects pairs Rohe + Chipperfield point of view with Wu Xing (5 Elements) tradition.

Each component of the project makes reference to 5 Elements‘ Zì Rán (Nature) aspect. The Wu Xing, also known as the Five Elements, Five Phases, the Five Agents, the Five Movements, Five Processes, and the Five Steps/ Stages, is a fivefold conceptual scheme that many traditional Chinese fields used to explain a wide array of phenomena. The "Five Elements" are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Each element has an aspect/s in the Nature and Directions:

Wood Line: Calculates the direction of the first wind on Wednesday, 29th October 2014, and is snapped on the floor of the gallery and continued outside using this axis of the wind

Fire Line: Calculates the axis of the sun rotation over the gallery for Wednesday, 29th October 2014, and is snapped on the floor of the gallery and continued outside using this axis of the sun

Earth Line: Takes Southwest and Northeast directions as an axis, and is snapped on the floor of the gallery and continued outside on the earth

Metal Component: With respect to Rohe’s building, the project does not snap a line for metal, as the building itself is already reflecting the best example for metal element. Neue National Gallerie is perfectly situated on top of Berlin’s marshy soil, built with perfect metal elements.

Water Line: Calculates the direction of the Landwehrkanal running next to Neue National Gallerie and is snapped on the floor of the gallery and continued outside using this axis of the water.