Flying Rivers

Winning project of art in public space competition

State Fire Service School, Geretsried, 2024. On production

The Isar is a wild river landscape – one of the last in Europe – that, since the beginning of time, has accompanied the emergence and development of the town of Geretsried, both from the earth’s surface and from the sky. Rivers are flowing streams that carry water from one place to another – through the riverbed and above our heads in the form of water vapor. In this way, these great bodies of water allow for multiple perceptions and temporalities.

I look into the river and its movement and transfer these qualities into the artwork. With the sculpture, which represents the Isar, the river is lifted from the ground into the sky, becoming a flying river that encounters the new building as if it were a great mountain. For the viewer, building and artwork merge, and thus the architecture is framed. Through the sculpture’s main material – metal mesh – the artwork acquires a dynamic character that contrasts with the static nature of the building. These different bodies generate a tension that is intensified when the viewer changes position and looks at the sculpture from a new perspective. Movement around and through the work allows us to perceive its fluidity, lightness, and mutability. As we move, the building and its surroundings transform.

Artistic Intent

As part of the project for the State Firefighting School in Geretsried, I engage with the artwork as a creative space between the obvious and the mysterious, thus creating an art object in which the viewer enters into a playful exchange between the variables of their perception and the materiality of the work. The sculpture’s metal mesh generates visual permeability, so that architecture and sculpture merge. The architecture contains the artwork, but the artwork in turn has the quality of making the building appear differently from other perspectives.

The sculpture is located in the central area on the pergola of the north terrace. The textured shadows cast by the light metal mesh interact with the natural light that changes throughout the day, as well as with a lighting design during the winter months. The material allows the plants, planned by the architects as a natural sunshade, to come into contact with the sculpture. In this way, the plants can inhabit the artwork and transform it over the years.

With this work, I aim to create a sculpture in which visitors, art, and nature meet – and in which the reference to the local landscape awakens awareness of the connection between humans and nature.