This Preparation of the Readiness…

source: ingesideede
inges idee besteht aus den Künstlern Hans Hemmert, Axel Lieber, Thomas A. Schmidt und Georg Zey, die seit der Gründung 1992 in Berlin gemeinsam an Projekten im öffentlichen Raum arbeiten. Neben dem Arbeiten in der Gruppe sind alle Mitglieder in ihrer individuellen künstlerischen Praxis aktiv.
inges idee arbeitet als künstlerisches Kollektiv im öffentlichen Raum. Dort geht es darum ein Gespür für Möglichkeiten und Besonderheiten eines Ortes zu entwickeln und auszuloten was ein konkreter Eingriff auszurichten vermag. Das geschieht im Dialog mit dem jeweils vorgefundenen Ort, der, im Gegensatz zum referenzlosen „White Cube“ in Museen und Galerien, nicht statisch und zeitlos ist, sondern einem ständigen Veränderungsprozess unterliegt. Um einen Ort richtig zu begreifen, bedarf es einer Untersuchung seiner räumlichen, sozialen und historischen Gegebenheiten.
Kunst im öffentlichen Raum kann einen vorgefundenen Kontext verschieben um den Blick auf andere Wirklichkeitsaspekte zu öffnen. Wenn das gelingt wird der Ort interessanter und reicher. Der gewohnte Ablauf des öffentlichen Lebens wird für einen Moment unterbrochen und der Betrachter erhält die Möglichkeit über das zu reflektieren, womit er sich unerwartet konfrontiert sieht. Das kann ganz unmittelbar geschehen, und muß nicht notwendigerweise theoretischer Natur sein. Diese Unmittelbarkeit der Erfahrung ist ein demokratisches Erlebnis, das inges idee versucht in Gang zu setzten. Es geht um eine Neubestimmung des Ortes und die Beziehung des Betrachters zu dem was er dort wahrnimmt und erlebt. Gelungene künstlerische Eingriffe bereichern nicht nur den Ort im Allgemeinen, sondern insbesondere die Menschen, die ihn als Erweiterung ihrer privaten Sphäre erleben können.
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source: ingesideede
inges idee consists of the artists Hans Hemmert, Axel Lieber, Thomas A. Schmidt und Georg Zey, who have worked jointly on projects in public space since the group was founded in Berlin in 1992. Along with works carried out in the group, all members are active in their own individual artistic practice.
inges idee works as an artistic collective in public space. What is therefore important is to develop an intuition for the possibilities and specificities of a site and to explore the effect a concrete intervention could have. This is done in dialog with the given site, which, unlike the reference-free “white cube” of museums and galleries, is not static and timeless, but subject to a constant process of change. To properly understand a site, its spatial, social, and historical qualities must be examined.
Public art can shift a given context in order to open the gaze up to other aspects of reality. If that is successful, then the site becomes more interesting and richer. The accustomed course of public life is interrupted for a moment and the viewer has a chance to reflect upon something he is unexpectedly confronted with. This can happen very directly and need not be of a theoretical nature. This immediacy is a democratic experience that inges idee tries to implement. The aim is a new characterization of the site and the viewer’s relationship to what he perceives and experiences there. Successful artistic interventions enrich not only the site in general, but also people, who can experience it as an extension of their private sphere.
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source: heavyindustries

Founded in 1992, INGES IDEE is a group of four German artists who collaborate to create site-specific public art projects. Although each artist is successful in their own right, working as a group allows Inges Idee to enrich its creative process by bringing together a variety of opinions, skills and judgments. As a group, the artists are able to overcome the challenges associated with the competing requirements and circumstances of site specific artwork.
“We don’t feel bound to a certain “style”; therefore, we’re free to adapt the media that best corresponds to a given site, whether this involves sculpture, architectural intervention, sound, computer animation, or light, etc.”
The four members of Inges Idee are Hans Hemmert, Axel Lieber, Thomas A. Schmidt and Georg Zey – you can find many examples of their work as individual artists as well as their Inges Idee collaborations on their website
The Drop is a 65 foot (19m), slender sculpture in the form of an elegant, abstracted rain droplet; it is a visual and conceptual compliment to both the surrounding landscape and one of the greenest convention centers in the world. The sculpture contrasts with the geometric architecture of the Vancouver Convention Centre and stands almost like a figurehead on a sailing ship. The Drop takes on a soft, round form with the potential to subtly alter its appearance with changes in light and weather. The art piece is a joyful yet sincere dialogue between technical achievement and respect for the natural surroundings. It will be a laconic landmark that resembles water and rain, known features of Vancouver, and pays homage to the power of nature.
Heavy Industries worked with Inges Idee, a team from the Vancouver Convention Center, an engineering team, and a few other stakeholders during the design phase of the project to ensure the final design of the Drop would meet everyone’s expectations and meet requirements given the site conditions. The group even worked together to conduct wind tunnel and dampening testing. The wind tunnel testing was to observe how wind would interact with the Drop to ensure the shape and inner armature of the Drop would be able to stand up to Vancouver’s most extreme weather conditions. The dampening tests were performed on a temporary installation pad behind Heavy’s workshop to ensure the Drop would not deflect or vibrate excessively for its foundation. Once all of the tests were complete and the team was completely satisfied with the design, we began the process of actually building the Drop.
We knew that maneuvering the Drop to perform the necessary bodywork would always be a challenge so before any of the actual fabrication on the Drop began, our team designed and built two stands with wheels and rollers on them to act as a massive lathe that could be used to reposition the Drop in our shop and rotate the Drop so that it could easily be turned for bodywork. Using the digital model provided by Inges Idee, our team of industrial designers programmed our computer-numerically controlled (CNC) milling equipment to mill out the shape of the Drop from one pound per square foot expanded polystyrene (EPS). Given the Drop’s extreme size compared to the constraints of the milling equipment, and given the fact that the EPS would need to be assembled around the already fabricated steel armature, our designers programmed the mill to make the shape of the Drop in pieces that could be clad to the armature.
Up until this point, computers and CNC equipment were exclusively used to design, tool path, and mill out the shape of the Drop. When it came to assembly, we were wholly confident that we had perfectly recreated Inges Idee’s envisioned shape of the Drop at 65’. With all of the EPS pieces clad to the armature and sitting on our custom built lathe, our team of extremely talented sculptors and bodyworkers were ready to begin the many hours of bodywork. The bodywork phase began by perfecting all of the seams that were present between assembled pieces of EPS as well as filling in all of the dimples that naturally occur when milling one pound EPS. When this was finished and the raw EPS was blemish free, our coatings specialists took over and sprayed the entire Drop with a specially formulated blue Polyurea Hardcoat. Think of a Polyurea hardcoat as being similar to a rubber based blanket, it is slightly flexible, yet it is extremely difficult to puncture or tear when it has an EPS core to evenly diffuse impact.
With the EPS completely coated with the Polyurea Hardcoat, it was time for our sculptors and bodyworkers to finish the shape of the Drop by ensuring that the shape and texture were fitting with Inges Idee’s vision. Using specially set up spotlights to manipulate shadows and other proven techniques, our team of sculptors and bodyworkers painstakingly sanded the shape of the Drop until its form was flawless.
When the bodywork on the Drop was complete, it was time for our paint team to take over and paint the Drop the color selected by Inges Idee. Our paint team had to work in tandem, briskly walking back and forth along the 65 foot Drop and rotating it on the lathe, while other team members continuously mixed paint, to evenly coat the entire piece in a timely enough fashion that the cure and adhere rates would be within the degree of error for a perfect finish. The same process was used with the clearcoat to give the Drop an extremely high gloss. When the final layer of clearcoat was applied, our team revisited the Drop with progressively higher grit sanding and buffing tools, working meticulously to bring the piece to its final finish.
When the Drop’s finish was finally perfect in the critical eyes of our production leaders, we transferred the Drop from the lathe stands that had been its home for the previous 8 months to custom built stands that would sit on the flatbed truck and be the Drop’s support until its final resting place at the Vancouver Convention Center. It was at this point the Drop was brought outside for the first time and we were able to witness its form vertically positioned and its color in bright sunshine – this was a very exciting morning for all of the staff at Heavy that had put so many hours into making the Drop a reality.
The Drop was loaded onto a flatbed truck and driven to Vancouver. It is interesting to note that the Drop was so long that this form of transportation would not have been possible if the upgrades to the highway near Golden had not taken place a few short years ago. Once in Vancouver, the Drop was loaded onto a barge equipped with a crane to travel across Burrard inlet to finally be placed on the deck at the Vancouver Convention Center.