1000 Flowers

Thomas Bartels

The installation "1000 Flowers“ consists of three modified concrete mixers. Floats hidden beneath the surface make them seem to perch weightlessly on the water. Powerful spotlights are mounted inside their barrels, along with mirrors, a system of lenses, and a handful of colourful pieces of glass in a transparent container.

Foto: Tomas Liebig

As darkness starts to fall, the drums of the mixers begin to turn, and the spotlights flick on. Bits of glass turn and tumble, mirrors fragment images into a multitude of facets, and the lenses project them onto the trees around. Suddenly, a thousand colourful flowers bloom on the banks of the Oker.

Foto: Tomas Liebig

The principle of the kaleidoscope is inverted: drums designed to mix sand, gravel, and cement into a quite literally concrete object instead turn bright fragments into something ephemeral.
The artwork "1000 Flowers“ is a light-hearted look at colour, movement, place, light art, and cinematic history – and it’s even worth visiting during the day.