Belvedere Wien
based on drawings by Salomon Kleiner, Vienna 1740
Another project originating from historical material was the processing of Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt’s copperplate engravings of the Belvedere in Vienna from 1731–40.
When visiting the Belvedere 1982 I stood in the middle wing of the Upper Belvedere, from where I looked through a window onto the park and down to the Lower Belvedere.
My exposed location in the middle of the symmetrical building and the park design, which underscores this point of view, suddenly gave me a feeling for the consequences of wanting to optimally integrate myself as a human into a system which is actually the projection of ideal principles onto material circumstances.
The consequence would be a standstill. The overall view is only perceivable where there is no movement.
When walking through the park, the question arose again at the water basin. To circumvent the built symmetry on the right or left means, assuming the construction described above, a deviation in existential conditions.
I edited a motif from the portfolio with copper engravings that I bought at the time.
It shows the water basin “of the main cascades in the middle of the garden” based on drawings by Salomon Kleiner in 1740. In the original you can see a few more figures standing at the edge of the pool.
Except for one figure, I worked everything else out of the stitch. The remaining gesture of the arm from the communication with the interlocutor who was previously standing next to her thus refers to the element of water.
I've often thought about possible follow-up actions for this character. What I like best is that the character would enter the water, thereby coming to itself as a living factor in the ideally conceived environment and submerging to disappear from the frame.