Nicolas Schöffer

Ephemeral images painted with light and visible over great distances: such is the effect of Nicolas Schöffer's cybernetic sculpture CHRONOS 10B. This monumental work embodies the three principles employed by Schöffer (*1912 Kalocsa, HU; †1992 Paris, FR) to define the perfect sculpture: spatiodynamics, luminodynamics and chronodynamics. The CHRONOS series sees the artist develop an electrical mechanism around which he creates a dynamic constructivist artwork comprising such intangible substances as space, light and time. His work references developments in twentieth-century kinetic art and constructivism and gives name to the principles already used by László Moholy-Nagy (*1895 Bácsborsód, HU; †1946 Chicago, USA) in his "Light-Space Modulator" (1930). CHRONOS 10B's dimensions facilitate a modern form of communication over vast expanses using light. Inspired by society's trend in the 1970s and 1980s towards an increasingly technological world, Schöffer translates the yearning for modernity, progress and technology into art. With the play of light cast after dusk from its position at the EPO entrance, CHRONOS 10B symbolises the dialogue between the German Patent and Trademark Office, the Deutsches Museum and the EPO.