‘ECCENTRICITY’
2020
“There rises a new form which, from the standpoint of nature, is entirely meaningful, comprehensible, differentiated. Nature has transformed the work of art into material for her own expression, as she had previously served as material for art”.
Georg Simmel, 1911, “The Ruin”
‘Eccentricity’ installation is proposed to point out the significance of an irreversible transformation of the salt-pan house. It reveals the processuality of the ruin phenomenon, obeying the unrelenting power of nature.
The infinite echo of Sečovlje Salina Nature Park, reflected in mirroring salt pans, imparts the mastery history of the valley. While the artificial interventions of the Fontanigge site are left to decay, the saltwork remnants expose the glory of nature prevailing above the man-made landscape. Gradual decomposition of salt-pan houses over time is hardly comprehendible at once. Therefore, the purpose of ‘Eccentricity’ is to emphasize and visually signify this loss.
The structure captures the inevitable process of ruination. It indicates an ambivalence between the retrospect of the salt-pan house and the prospect of its remains. The depictive horizontal division of the form represents the dynamics of past and future anchored by the framed condition of the physical present. The upper section of the structure, which surrounds the ruin, is tightened with the linen fabric, covering the missing part of the salt-pan house. Whereas the transparency of the fluttering cloth in the lower section reflects expression of the nature force, shaping the ruin. The elliptical plan of the proposal is translated through the characteristics of conic sections, where the initial condition of the salt-pan house is a circle. Considering eccentricity as a metaphor for the ruination, the ellipse shape of the installation exhibits the recessive time of the salt-pan house life.
Authors: Aleksandra Ivashkevich, Elizaveta Lartseva, Oyat Shukurov, Mikheil Mikadze