At close, more than 120,000 people got to experience Antony Gormley's disorienting installation, Horizon Field Hamburg, making it the most visited exhibition in the history of Deichtorhallen. The art center, based in Hamburg, Germany, was the temporarily home to a 2,500 square meter reflective black platform that was suspended 7.5 meters above the floor by just eight 22-millimeter cables. The world renowned British artist wanted the exhibit to be a disorienting and destabilizing experience, but one that was unique to each visitor.
As he told New Scientist, “Some people seem to be highly physical, doing cartwheels and yoga and Pilates and a whole load of other things – trying, for instance, to stand when the whole platform is oscillating, and even managing to do so – while others lie and watch or simply meditate on the experience of being in, but not of, the world.
“The platform creates the experience of the space at large – space as an expanding condition – and the social nature of space. They can look out of the windows at a distant horizon where the cityscape and the sky interact. They can also sense the collective movement, because every footfall, every movement of everybody on that platform is transmitted through this thin, tensile surface.”
Photos via [Johannes Leistner], [Deichtorhallen Hamburg], [Trans Pond], [Daniel Rosch], [Antony Gormley]
