GEREON LEPPER

STILLES GELEIT (‘Silent escort’), prototype

1998
Atelier Hattingen

'Stilles Geleit' is an installation of several movable mast-like balancing objects that respond both to gravity and air currents. In calm air, gravity keeps the masts of the objects vertical; however, the slightest movement of air suffices to disrupt this state of rest. A sluggish motion inclined leeward comes about while, owing to appropriately constructed wind-catching surfaces, the objects themselves maintain an orientation into the wind. The phenomenon as perceived by the viewer is one of a three-dimensional drawing that changes according to the direction and intensity of the wind and whose linear components in their respective states expose momentarily the otherwise invisible forces acting upon them.