Mobility

Questions of mobility are more pressing than ever today. As the energy transition gains momentum, the rise of e-mobility is gathering pace and the race for cleaner fuels such as green hydrogen intensifying. At the same time, increasingly diverse forms of transport infrastructure are finding their way into our world – from new forms of public transport to space tourism – opening up ever new sightlines.

Belgian sculptor Panamarenko expressed a desire for total independence from conventional infrastructure in his work Magic (Flying) Carpet at the end of the 1970s. His often highly engineered works, none of which ever flew, occupy a curious place in art history, somewhere between fairy tale, Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of flying machines that may never even have been built in the artist’s lifetime, and the realm of science fiction. Nevertheless, Panamarenko’s almost boundlessly mischievous creativity serves as a hopeful reminder that innovation has repeatedly turned what were once considered mere pipedreams into reality.

More recently, British-German artist and educator Katja Davar returned to the air balloon when meditating on mobility: could the vessels she sketches in fact be used as air taxis? Either way, the bold line drawings in her colourful works recall the collaboration required of inventors on the one hand and, on the other, creators of technical drawings that visually communicate technical knowledge in patent applications. As such, Davar seems to pinpoint the kind of interplay between technology and the free reign of imagination that, combined with the right kind of know-how, has inspired countless inventors.

On the topic of bringing ideas to life, very subtle movements are recreated in Siegfried Kreitner’s nearby Breathing Cube. By combining, mimicking and subverting features of organisms, machines and geometric forms, the German sculptor forces us to think again about material reality and the nature of his materials – aluminium, steel, neon tubes, electric motors and Plexiglas – as we witness the cube "gently breathing". Anyone who has seen Nicolas Schöffer’s Chronos 10 B come to life in the evening, in front of the Isar building’s main entrance, may already know where Kreitner is coming from with his kinetic works, which are illuminating and poetic in equal measure.

While the neon turquoise of Kreitner’s cube may clash with the brilliant azure of the ethereal photograph by Japanese artist Hiroyuki Masuyama, don’t forget the unseen machinery involved in creating this mesmerising sliver of Earth and atmosphere: the aeroplane, the camera, the machinery to produce the acrylic glazing in which Masuyama’s flight is set. Space and time condensed into a still image during an age in which flying once stood solely for freedom and almost unlimited mobility. But how will this era of mobility be viewed in the future?

Returning to Earth, the journey continues with Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson using light and long-exposure photography to trace human movement on the ground, a preface to his subsequent “Little Sun” sustainable development project, while Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury plays ironically with gender clichés surrounding motors and speed. To what degree must every artist move with the times?