"Rapport" – the tile is simply misleading. Neither a military report nor the textile or graphic repetition of patterns and ornaments are in the focal point here. The title disguises the content of the exhibition in the entrance hall to Berlinische Galerie, that is not an exhibition but quite simply an intervention. It's an intervention that Jürgen Mayer H. has carried out quite routinely, and that takes him across a threshold that is open to all those who walk the line between architecture, design and art. The piece focuses on the experimental level, on exploring spaces and perspectives, on using materials and dimensions to influence perception.
The starting point for many of his pieces is a "data protection pattern", meaning superimposed layers of columns of letters and numbers such as are printed on the back of forms or on the inside of envelopes and destined solely to conceal the content of letters and other written communications and protect them from curious and unwanted eyes.
Patterns that fulfill a stringent function in two dimensions now vacate the received context and are given a new lease of life in three dimensions. Jürgen Mayer H. uses the floor and wall of the entrance hall as an analogue to an envelope. The surfaces are covered almost completely across almost the entire height of ten meters by a bright carpet printed with black patterns (numerals, letters and lines). There are no discernible borders to the extremely blown-up pattern, no discernible repetitions, just as little as the carpet creates a dividing line in the room with a clear straight cut.
With this "experimental spatial structure", facilitated by Vorwerk Teppich, Jürgen Mayer H. offers a fresh insight into his interdisciplinary approach. "Founded pattern" is what he calls the reference points of his work, whereby the coincidental and incidental provides the basis for his transformations of dimensions and linkages.
J. Mayer H. Rapport. Experimental Spatial Structures
From Sept. 16, 2011 thru' April 9, 2012
Berlinische Galerie
www.berlinischegalerie.de
Installation "Rapport. Experiments with Spatial Structure" by J. Mayer H., photos: Jörg Zimmermann
The architect Jürgen Mayer H. owns a voluminous collection of data security patterns. Berlinische Galerie shows a selection of the collection within a Slideshow.
