Light installation at the Goethe-Institute Prague, ČR
Oct. 10th 2024 – Nov. 06th 2024
“For me, you were, along with much else, also like a window through which I could see the streets. I could not do that by myself, for tall though …”, writes Franz Kafka to his school friend Oskar Pollak shortly after their school leaving exams.(1)
In another letter to Pollak it is said: “They are all connected to each other,” – the people are meant – “by ropes, and it is already evil when the ropes loosen around one and one sinks a little lower than the others into the empty space, and ghastly when the ropes tear around and you fall.“(2)
The alley window as a medium for viewing and insight – and the rope, depending on the context, as a bridge over the abyss, a social bond, or a shackle. The Berlin artist Franz John engages with these motifs in Kafka’s work through his piece Das Gassenfenster.(3) (The Alley Window) by stretching light wires across the windows of the Goethe-Institute in Prague, illuminating multiple layers of meaning.
Text: Jan Brandt