Panoptikum, walkable cube with five coloured
glass windows, 500 x 230 x 230cm
Curated by Heimo Wallner
XYZ2 Symposion, Griffnerhaus, Griffen, A, 2006
Ulrike Johannsen, an artist originally from Germany who has lived in Vienna for many years, presents her work ‘Panoptikum’ at the entrance to the GriffnerHaus grounds. This work is in line with a series of other cube works known as ‘Love Lounges’. The artist creates the typical atmosphere of the ‘Love Lounges’ with lounge-style furniture, music, magazines with collaged song lyrics, and occasional advertising posters. As in those works, atmosphere also plays an important role in ‘Panoptikum’. The cube on stilts, which is accessed by a ladder, is equipped with round window cut-outs on all sides. Coloured glass in the “portholes” offers an orange-tinted view of the motorway or, with yellow ‘glasses’, of the sky. The artist has sharpened her eye for the atmospheric, for the small in the large, for colours. Her walk-in sculpture is reminiscent of a raised hide for hunters or a tree house. A historical reference goes back to the Panopticon building designed by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who interpreted the circular building as the ideal design for a prison. The panoramic view, which seemed ideal for observing the prison population, was later taken up by the French philosopher Michel Foucault as an image for modern society. Interestingly, the inventor of the ‘ideal’ prison is also the founder of utilitarianism, whose core message follows a principle of maximum happiness. When the artist constructs a ‘panopticon’ cube, the exploration of happiness is her primary concern. Ulrike Johannsen wants to create places of retreat
where it is possible to feel good .
Sabine Schaschl
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