GEREON LEPPER

LOCKRUF DER BERGE [Call of the mountains]

1999
H 3.0 m / W 1.4 m / D 1 m
Kunstverein Lingen

A roughly one and a half-metre high steel cylinder is placed on a pillar-like pedestal above eye level. It rests on two rubber-coated steel rollers and rotates slowly moved by a geared motor at a speed of about two revolutions per hour. The cylinder is filled with about 30-40 medium-sized boulders. It is open at both ends, the stones being prevented from falling out for the time being by metal rods screwed on to the sides of the cylinder. Bars attached to the inside of the cylinder raise up the loose pieces of rock following the rotation. Slowly and unstoppably they move towards the point at which the chance arrangement of the stones at rest changes to sudden chaos. The rock formation comes crashing down like rock-fall. The peace once restored is only of limited duration. At an unforeseeable point in time, the next rock-fall occurs. The repeated collisions lead to some of the lumps of rock bursting asunder. The smaller fragments pass through the apertures reinforced by the metal rods and fall to the ground. Within the area surrounding the sculpture, a growing expanse of rubble is produced which reflects the extent of the drama unfolding.