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Wolfgang Laib
Installation with Two “Rice Houses”
February to March 1996
Two rice houses of white stone, long and block-like in form, rest on the floor. They are surrounded by heaped mounds of rice. Wolfgang Laib has brought both his works dating from the 1990s from his studio for the exhibition “… in the Window” in the Cologne Diözesanmuseum. He combines them with a simple late medieval ciborium which is placed in a wall niche. The objects form a natural unity without an obvious or central correlation. They seem to be simple: the plain, hexagonal vessel with a tetrahedron roof lid as well as the solid marble log constructions in the form of houses. The rice as food which has been cultivated for thousands of years falls into place “simply” – in the sense of “self-evident” and “natural”. Notions of abundance are evoked by the countless piled up grains of rice as well as by the long form of the house which reminds us of a storehouse. Abundance is also evoked by the ciborium containing the Eucharistic bread. The forms, though, which hide such abundance are sparse and simple. Their simplicity and the natural ensemble of “rice houses” and ciborium radiate composure. Thus a place of composure is established among the bustle of a big city with all its demands to act and react, a timeless place where one is left by oneself. (A documentation with text and illustrations will be published following the exhibition).
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