Haubitz & Zoche

"A line creates a new situation. A line marks the beginning of many art works, whether a stroke in a drawing, a rough draft, or a piece of writing. In the process, the line becomes the bearer of intentions and ideas. But in public space, a line is usually raw material, a means to an end. It provides for order, for the most part, organizing traffic and setting boundaries. Haubitz + Zoche work with a public line that connects its blunt character with a conceptual approach. The blue line runs through the center of Copenhagen. It divides streets, squares, parks, buildings. Its dimensions as a whole can only be seen from a bird’s eye view. It has not been drawn straight and at right angles, instead it meanders like the coastal line of an island untouched by humans. The line, drawn concretely on the ground, demarcates bays, peninsulas and islands where piers, streets and city blocks are today. It is a contour line. It marks an elevation of 7 m above sea level. This corresponds to the rise in the sea level that would occur if Greenland’s ice shields melt. In this event, the average global sea level would be about seven meters higher than today. The earth’s largest island, an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark and politically tied to Copenhagen, is part of a mathematical model. Research on anthropogenic climate change is extremely complex. With their line through Copenhagen’s urban space, Haubitz+Zoche have singled out one exemplary aspect out of this pool of research. The line translates the scientific information into physical experience. The model presents a situation for which no point in time exists as yet. It’s as simple as that. If the ice melts due to climate change, the sea level will rise. If the sea level rises seven meters, the line will have another meaning: it will then create a limit, an „inside” and an „outside.” It will mark off a small part of the city, the safer part, the higher part. No one knows what will become of the lower part, with its piers, streets and buildings – and its people. The insular thinking that currently prevents large sections of the population from becoming aware of global developments and pushing for collective action, is in fact leading to new topographies, whose problems are evident. With the blue line, an island arises in the heart of Copenhagen, a warning piece of writing, a nightmare island. For the time being, it is a work by the artists Haubitz + Zoche, but we as creators of climate change are the work’s actual creators. As a signal it challenges us to reflect now about how we may adequately counteract climate change. The real islands of tomorrow would signify a brave new world only at the price of sacrificing values such as freedom, democracy and solidarity. The line in public space creates a new situation: not only on the ground but also in our minds, if it transforms insular thinking into global perspectives." Text by Jochen Meister on Haubitz+Zoche, waterknowsnowalls.

Quelle: Nusser + Baumgart, München