Neuköllner Sozialparkett – 126 sqm wakable floor installation | Museum Neukölln | ©Christian Reister
TRILOGIE OF SOCIAL FLOOR COVERING
Parquet floors were highly valued and earned attention at all times. In Europe by the 17th century, masters had achieved perfection in producing art parquet. For centuries wooden parquet floors were desirable products available only to the rich. Beside the applied function of a floor covering, parquet is a field of social representation.
I KUNSTPARKETT [2009]
Linguistically, the ‘art parquet’ indicates success and a breakthrough in artistic creativity.
So those who waltz on the parquet of the art world have truly made it: their creative work transforms into art, and this “good art” can now be traded as “goods”: art whose worth lies less in the ideal than in stock and investment value. One discovers little about the concrete state of the art parquet; it is the actions of re(e)valuation that take place on it and its function as a marketplace for art that are decisive.
The installation ART PARQUET materialises the linguistic metaphor, giving it a physical form.
The “walk-on” floor covering democratises access to the “art parquet”.
Art parquet is produced from material that originates directly from art production, functions as a presentation surface for art, protects art during transport, or is part of an artwork.
II VOLKSPARKETT [2009]
The VOLKSPARKETT was created in 2009 as a contribution to the exhibition project VOX POPULI [lat. Voice of the People] at Eisenhardt Castle. VOLKSPARKETT is a German-German floor covering made from materials used as home decor by the residents of the city of Belzig, formerly part of East Germany.
III NEUKÖLLNER SOZIALPARKETT [2011]
Discarded parts of private furniture like tabletops, bookshelves or cabinet doors, which have been disposed in public space in the area of Berlin district Neukölln, as well as material which originates from the cellars or attics of the district’s residents, has been transformed into a 126sqm ‘social floor covering’. The walk-on installation ‘NEUKÖLLNER SOZIALPARKETT’ was presented in 2010 the museum of Berlin-Neukölln.