Auke de Vries

Landed, 2002

Landed – the first sculpture for the Berlin airspace – completes the sculptural ensemble of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection. Till November 2016, the sculpture was installed on the roof of the 14^th floor of the former Daimler Financial Services headquarters on Potsdamer Platz and is temporarily demounted. It is a metal sculpture which resembles a flying space element that draws attention to it with a high banner. The starting point for Auke de Vries’ sculptural thinking is the concept of a body without pre-given definitions: without mass, without volume, without center. The question is: How can I react to the consequences of scientific developments, from the theory of relativity to bio-politics? The sculpture must give visual expression to the experience of profound instability in all situations and all agreements. A visual expression that grasps and visualizes this experience as positive free scope for the imagination. In keeping with this approach, Auke de Vries’ sculptures are interconnections of potential energies, they create ‘space’ for new perspectives on reality.