Martin Walde :
Gänserndorf-Barbaraheim Home for the Elderly

Parallel worlds and rituals play a key role in the art of Martin Walde, as does the exchange of energies. When he sets out to develop a work for the regional care home where the majority of the residents are no longer capable of moving independently, one could speak of an (aesthetic) infusion. The participant at documenta X was quick to find a suitable concept for the Barbaraheim: The artistic intervention was to instil the atrium space, the communicative core of the complex, with positive vibrations by means of a visual kick, to make it more interesting, more attractive and more engaging. Made for people whose potential for perception is limited, Walde's hovering object of nylon fabric is an expanding element of highly poetic suggestive power. The nylon fabric was cut into according to a particular system. When pulled at the sides, a three-dimensional wave shape results that begins to move with the slightest movement of air to conjure up a ballet of light and shadows on the floor and walls. Walde's flock of seagulls is a matter of light projection — but also of people's projections, of romantic natural philosophy and the feedback sound of a permanently changing reality.
In a 150 minute video Martin Walde links the artist's functional research with the memories and the collective memory of the residents of the home: shown are impressive close-ups of fruit, flowers and everyday actions and gestures that used to be so matter-of-course but which are frequently no longer so.
(Brigitte Huck)