COLOR AS RESOURCE

An Art Project on the Energy Level of Plants

Schöppingen, Münsterland, Germany, since 2017 (unlimited, public art)

Color as Resource

Color as Resource

Color as Resource

Color as Resource

Ressource Farbe

Color as Resource

Color as Resource

Color as Resource

 

 

In his art projects and works, Franz John deals with nature and with possibilities of its media­tized repre­­senta­tion. His works combine re­sults of intensive research and scientific analy­sis and include them in ex­peri­ence–friendly, often touchable and usable instal­la­tions in public spaces. Since 2011 – then funded by the German Federal Cul­tural Foun­dation – Franz John has produced dye-operated solar cells from plant pigments, aiming to use them as a sustainable energy source and “Resource” for his artistic works.

Franz John – Color as Resource
An art and energy project within the framework of
Kraftwerk Künstlerdorf.  Realization: 2013 – 2017

Color as Re­source is a permanent site-specific instal­lation by Franz John that utilises the old electrical sub­station in the city of Schöp­pingen: blue-lumines­cent wires extend poetically and meta­phorically towards the sky, while red LED lights are scat­tered on the ground floor inside the building and control­led by local weather data on site. These lights appear to breathe and to have become living entities in the dark space. The old sys­tem of elec­tric­ity has now been replaced by new sustain­able technology, so-called Graetzel cells (1), which generates elec­tric­ity by means of technically photo­synthesising organic colors. With his long-term interests in sustain­able energy and nature, John learned of the tech­no­logy to produce customised solar panels that make use, in par­tic­ular for the Schöp­pingen pro­ject, of the cells of Eckendorfer Langflachs, a typical flax plant that was previously widely cultivated in Münster­land. His­tori­cally grown in the geo­graph­ic conditions of the sandy land and the humidity caused by the moist wind from the Netherlands, it was used to produce high quality linen for the local textile industry. Today, however, corn mono-culture covers the land­scape to the intro­duction of ethanol for auto­mobile. Re­flecting on this history, the artist draws viewers’ atten­tion to the effects of techno­lo­gical develop­ment that are inscribed in seemingly banal landscapes. Indi­cating the impor­tance of diversity and the forth­coming possibility of yet another trans­for­mation of the region, Color as Resource (2) opens up the imaginary space in Schöp­pingen be­tween the past, present, and future, rather than labeling it as “anywhere”.

Text by Miya Yoshida

1 Dye-operated solar cells, also known as “Grätzel cells” after their inventor Michael Grätzel. The special feature of this par­tic­ularly sustain­able and environ­mentally friendly techno­lo­gy is that its photo­syn­theti­cally func­tion­al components can be obtained from plant pig­ments – in contrast to the silicon-based con­struction that is prevalent world­wide today.

(2) Refering links to pro­ject “Color as Resource”
93 Million Miles Away … , Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (D), 2011
Color as Resource, Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen (D), 2019