Detlef Hartung – Georg Trenz |
Narciß und Echo
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A cylindrical glass tower rises amidst Sylt‘s unspoilt natural landscape, on the edge of the Rantum basin. This structure at the spring and the filling plant form the architectural core of the Sylt–Quelle mineral water enterprise. |
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| The associational basis for addressing this place, which is also a cultural institution on Sylt, is drawn from the myth of Narcissus and Echo in Ovid‘s Metamorphoses. The beautiful youth Narcissus scorns the love of the nymph Echo. She is changed into a rock, while Narcissus is compelled to fall in love with his own image in a tranquil spring. When a leaf disturbs the surface of the water he is overcome by the supposed perception that he is ugly, and he dies. |
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Alongside the themes of love, self–reflection, non–perception etc., this is also about the relationship and connections between image (Narcissus) and language (Echo). The interior of the culture spring on Sylt bubbles over with undulating lines of verbs of perception, reflection and action. Between them quotations flash up from the foundation‘s literary patrons. Other projectors write phrases from the Narcissus and Echo myth directly out into the landscape of dunes, like the beams from a lighthouse. |
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Architecture, landscape and projection fragment each other mutually. This creates a cosmos in its own right, an imaginative space that allows viewers to discover their own individual images and words and add to them. Image and word as basis intellectual and spiritual food for human beings, in direct associative combination with water, spring and sea also enable this cycle of events to be permanent. |
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