With the BIX Light and Media Façade on the Kunsthaus Graz, realities:united 2003 made its international name; now a prototype of the installation by the Berlin artists and architects has been added to MoMA’s collection.
BIX is the 900 m2 light and media installation in the façade of the Kunsthaus in Graz. It makes it possible to program the façade like a computer monitor and to broadcast projections, animations, or messages into the urban space. The conceptual highlights are the individual lighting elements that constitute the screen: not filigree, high-tech LEDs, but conventional, circular fluorescent lamps, arranged on a vast scale.
The installation, which has won several prizes, fulfills the Kunsthaus’ communicative ambition and has become one of its special aesthetic identifying features. Upon its completion in 2003, the installation set a new standard for the fusion of architecture, media, and art. Since then it has been considered one of the most important reference projects in the discourse on media architecture concepts.
The inclusion in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) confirms that the installation and the underlying approach are still relevant seven years after the project’s completion.
Jan and Tim Edler, the founders of realities:united say: “We always regarded this work as an artistic laboratory, i.e. one freed of commercial constraints, for researching suitable behaviors for an increasingly dynamizing architecture. In our view, BIX is more a process for developing a language than an artistic end product. Becoming part of MoMA’s collection is an honor for us. It also shows how the concepts of such collections expand.”
BIX will be represented in MoMA’s collection by an early prototype of one “pixel” that served realities:united in the planning process as an object of study for the investigation of the illuminatory effect and controllability of the installation.
Links:
MoMA realities:united BIX Documentary BIX Video Documentary BIX Webcam Kunsthaus Graz
