Der Transsib.-Prospekt

The Transsib.-Prospect

CR 53. Year 1977

It was agreed upon with the organizer that Jochen Gerz would make a journey, as his contribution to documenta 6. Sitting in a compartment of the Transsiberian Express, he was to travel the distance ...

Lived time cannot be exhibited.
Günter Metken 1977. Translated by e_CR editors

Gelebte Zeit lässt sich nicht vorzeigen.
Günter Metken 1977

Gerz associates the escalation of artistic "doing" with an inevitable dissolution, as if it were sucked up into a black hole, a cannibal galaxy swallowing celestial bodies, with a surface where time stops, as we see from new discoveries in astrophysics... Here we sight the paradoxical shore Gerz' thinking is leading us toward. The black hole, bottomless vessel where energies dissolve, image of the void and nothingness, nonetheless represents a hope of reuniting being and doing…
Anne Dagbert 1986

Oriental thinking, for instance that of Lao-tse which Gerz knows well, would be the nearest to this "point zero, between being and having". In its wisdom, it offers a viable model for the artist at the end of the twentieth century, an artist delivered and cured of his illusions, but seeking his inspiration in the ethic he is able to introduce into his art. (Gerz readily quotes Wittgenstein: "the aesthetic is the ethic").
Anne Dagbert 1986

Was it not a superb Zen gesture when Gerz traveled 16,000 kilometres in the Transsiberian Express during sixteen days with the curtains of his compartment closed so that he could see nothing of the country? Not see anything, but still know it. Since all trace of the voyage has been destroyed, no one but the artist can be sure it ever existed.
Anne Dagbert 1986

Keywords

Installation / Performance

Framing lumber podium (painted with photographic opaque), 40 x 600 x 600 cm, 16 rough wooden chairs (painted with photographic opaque), each 96.5 x 35.5 x 44 cm, 16 slate boards with footprints, each 4 x 57 x 57 cm, 4 loudspeakers, CD player, CD, wall text, spotlights

The room is darkened. The sound of a moving train is heard. Chairs and slate boards are distributed in a square on the podium. The wall text describes an agreement with the organizers of documenta 6 regarding this work. The agreement does not make clear whether the return journey behind closed windows from Moscow to Chabarovsk has taken place or not.

See single work Das Transsib. Medium (631) and the manuscript of the same title (655).

Museum Wiesbaden

Exhibitions

Kassel 1977. Wiesbaden 1997 (permanent)

Bibliography

I: Kassel 1977a, pp. 262-263. Hannover 1978, p. 15. Maastricht 1979, pp. 12-13. Luzern 1979. Bielefeld 1981. Bielefeld 1985, pp. 60, 201. Bruxelles 1985, p. 83. Calais 1986, p. 31. Meymac 1987, p. 63. Valence 1987, pp. 22- 23. Berlin 1989b, p. 77. Düsseldorf 1991, pp. 224-225. Paris 1991, p. 55. Tarazona 1992, p. 96. Montréal 1993, pp. 12, 21. Esslingen 1994, pp. 88-89. Regensburg 1995a, p. 238. Wiesbaden 1997, Cover, pp. 11, 84-97. Ivry-sur-Seine 2017, pp. 95, 174-175

II: Glozer 1977, p. 101. Hohmeyer 1977, p. 164. Jappe 1+2, 1977. Jorissen 1, 1977, p. 14. Jürgens 1977. Kipphoff 1977, p. 35. Müller 1977, pp. 6-7. Red. 2, 1977, p. 3. Red. 6, 1977, p. 64. Sager 1977, p. 20. Thiel 1977, pp. 70-72. Pachnike 1981, pp. 578-579. Mattenklott 1982, pp. 88-89. Honnef 1988, p. 31. Drateln 1989, pp. 44-45. Pejic 1990, pp. 146, 149. Drateln 1991, p. 24. Pejic 1992, p. 77. Red. 25, 1994, p. 19. Robin 1, 1994. Fleck 1995, p. 78. Meyer 1997, pp. 154-155. art 3/1997, p. 38. Asmuth 1+2, 1997. Bonekämper 1997. Crüwell 1997. Gries 1997. Grus 1997. Feeser 1997. Fischer 3, 1997. Haase 2, 1997. Henke 1, 1997. Kuni 1997. Huther 1-4, 1997. Melten 2, 1997. Rudel 1+2, 1997. Schossig 1997. Schwarze 1997. Wagner 2, 1997

III: Clarke 1977, pp. 38-39. Giroud 1977, p. 2. Gravel 1978, pp. 49-50. Pohlen 1978, p. 14. Matin 1990. Rogendörfer 1990, p. 229

V: Metken 1977, pp. 134-136. Skira 1978, p. 84. Zagericnik 1978. Krug-Mann 1979, pp. 366-367. Brock 1982, pp. 117-118. Mattenklott 1982, pp. 206-207. Molderings 1984, p. 169. Blümler 1989, Cover. Wolf 1992, pp. 57ff., 200-201, 209. Debicki 1995, p. 287. Happersberger 2013. pp. 95, 174-175. Schneider 2017, pp. 9-10

Access general bibliography

Documentation

Slates, b/w photographs

Exhibitions of the documentation