The Red Carpet
Measuring 2 meters 50 by up to 30 meters, this is a walk-in photograph on plastic foil showing the staircase of the Temple of Confucius in Taipei (Taiwan). The photo was taken during a working stay in Taiwan by the artist in September 2008.
Installation in the Emperor’s Room of the Imperial Castle of Trifels
The monumental staircase becomes an illusion in space, the carpet covering it – a decoration on the occasion of the birthday of Confucius, celebrated annually in September – becomes a picture of reality and continues extensively across the whole length of the Emperor’s Room.
Apart from the central theme of this relation between reality and picture, of second, third and fourth dimension, the work is intended to bridge continents and time; observers in various locations and at varying times are invited to step into the work of art, to leave their traces there and so become part of the history of this work. In this way, they “extend” the work continually in interaction with the different spatial contexts – in the levels of the exhibition through the ever-richer history and in reality through the added footprints of new observers in different locations.
Exhibition location and work of art could hardly harmonize better. The two floors of the Imperial Room are connected by a large open staircase. The installation runs parallel to this staircase and thus formally enters into a relationship directly with the architectural occurrences of the exhibition location. The relationship to the location is also expressed in the comparison of reality and illusion as regards content: thus the Emperor’s Room in the Romanic form it has today was built in the 1940s and itself creates in this way an illusion of its own history.
Installation locations of the Red Carpet
2010 - Coblenz
2010 - Mainz
A Virtual Installation
For the opening of the exhibition “Culture without Frontiers”, Monika Kropshofer rolls out the virtual red carpet! In the entrance area of the KUZ grounds, the artist from Boppard shows a wall-and-floor work of plastic foil showing the photo of a staircase covered with a red carpet. The photo shows a staircase of the Temple of Confucius in Taipei, and intends to bridge continents and time. Visitors are invited to step into the work of art, to leave their traces there and so become a part of the history of this work.