Und sie bewegt sich doch!, 2002

Und sie bewegt sich doch! (And yet it does move!, 2002) is a model of the world which is as zany as it is clear. The engine of a car connected to the model powers the earth in its spin, illuminated by the car's headlamps. The model, made from parts of old cars and a street lamp and complete with satellite, spins to the sound of traffic.

Since it is not Galileo but Sailstorfer who has created this defiant model, on the one hand Und sie bewegt sich doch! hints at the mammoth task of organizing the cosmos and representing it. On the other hand, it is in this sense that the title emphasizes the fact that and yet it does move, it is moving after all! – an answer which for its part appears to relate to the open universe. Because the car engine keeping the earth spinning has absolutely nothing romantic about it and instead also alludes to our desperate longing to use movement to somehow gain control of the world's infinity. This automobile interpretation of the world suggests that as long as our own horizon continues to move, it cannot be altogether inappropriate to the infinity of the cosmos: Expressway metaphysics. ~ Johan Frederik Hartle.

Und sie bewegt sich doch!, 2002
Museumsplatz, Städtisch Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München
Streetlight, Mersedes Benz, iron, electricity
400cm x 1500cm x 500cm
Photos: Siegfried Wameser.

source: sailstorfer.com