2016

auf Anfrage zugänglich

Grundschule Ilse-von-Twardowski-Platz 1, 81829 München

Messing, ASB Plastik, mechanisches Getriebe, 300 cm x 580 cm x 580 cm

Brass, ASB plastic, mechanical gearbox
300 cm x 580 cm x 580 cm

Architecture: Balda Architekten GbmH, Fürstenfeldbruck

Photos: Quirin Leppert

Text: Cornelia Gockel

Elementary school-age girls and boys are world explorers, researchers, and adventurers. During this period, teachers and parents are hard pressed to fulfill their charges’ thirst for knowledge. With Veronika’s World, the artist Wolfgang Weileder has created an installation for the newly constructed elementary school on Ilse von Twardowski Square, referencing the environment of a child around eight years old.

In the bright, beechwood-paneled auditorium, a shiny metallic, kinetic object reminiscent of a mechanical model of the solar system hangs from the ceiling. Small figurines made of white plastic are attached to thin brass rods of different lengths and revolve around an astronomical clock. Since the eighteenth century, scientists have been building mechanical models to explain how the planets orbit the sun. Even though there are now computer animated images, these mechanical models have yet to lose their fascination.

There are no rotating miniature stars in Weileder’s “planet machine,” however; instead, there is a horse, a violin, a sled, a Super Mario figure, a model airplane, and other objects Veronika finds significant. Engraved in the astronomical clock in the middle are the names of friends and family who are at the center of her life. As they circle around, the objects continually form new constellations.

“Veronika’s World is an exemplary model of a child’s world, a mixture of reality and dream,” says Weileder about his work. In his previous work as an artist, he has repeatedly explored ways of perceiving and representing “world.” In this sense, Veronika’s World not only holds to the tradition of the Enlightenment but is also an example of the artistic appropriation of scientific models that explain the world.