Susanne Schuricht
When
it gets dark
Photography
Japan 2008
no
beginning, no end
moment and eternity
balance and perspective
prospect and past
lightful and colorful it radiates out into the dark.
kein beginn, kein ende
moment und ewigkeit
balance und perspektive
ausblick und vergangenheit
hell und farbig strahlt es aus der dunkelheit weit.
Installationview by Jan Bitter
"Projekt Barnimkante", Kunst am Bau, 2009,
Berlin
Gintengai
Market in Koza, Okinawa, Japan
Once the old market, which dates back to the 1950s will be demolished,
the lights, which remind on lanterns will be gone and the alley will change
its face forever – But memories of those days, with all their good
as well as difficult sides will not fade away ... After the completion
of the new market, the work "When it gets dark" will become
a permanent installation at the site of the former alleyway.
When it gets dark is a permanent installation that reminds viewers of the old Gintengai market in Koza, Okinawa. The work transforms a description of the way the market used to be into the artist’s poetic and melancholy perspective. The term poetic refers to the “poetry of the moment” and means that the signified has an effect that eludes language, something silent, much as poem has an effect that is beyond everyday language. This poetry removes the aesthetics of the factual situation from the economic framework and translates the events of the past into the literary and poetic form of an artwork. In this way the atmosphere of the place is not only captured, it exists as a permanent installation much like a memorial. A memorial to the preservation of one's own cultural identity, of one's own cultural–historical narrative and of local and specific peculiarities. The work retains an aspect of this particularity and provides passersby with a permanent reminder of part of their own history. The work thereby carries out a positive act of mourning on behalf of the inhabitants of Koza. (Wolf Guenter Thiel)
Text by Wolf Guenter Thiel in German (PDF)