M HKA Ensembles

Installation

Photo of the installation during Chris Reinecke: Cooperative, Galerie art intermedia (Helmut Rywelski), Cologne, 6.10-1.11.1967

With the Klima-Tisch, Chris Reinecke wanted to invite visitors to think about responsibility and self-determination. The message was: make your world yourself. The user of the table was able to simulate different climates by means of coloured light (illumination of colourfully painted landscape panels), a fan (wind), a toaster (heat), perfumes and cream sprays (scents).

At the end of the presentation, Reinecke habitually meticulously describes the workings of the Klima-Tisch in one of her protocols. "People didn't follow the rules, they sprinkled flour into the spinning fan and didn't take it seriously. They wanted to show off like little kids." That was not the desired result. The unrelenting self-criticism and analysis of her own work is an expression of the seriousness with which Reinecke works as an artist. On the one hand, she wants to open up the concept of the work; on the other hand, she thinks that the use of 'prescriptions' is necessary in order to arrive at new experiences. She does not regard the action as a failure, but as a phase in the learning process between the artist and the visitors to the exhibition, the end result of which is always an impulse to 'act differently'. Although she told me afterwards that in those days, female artists were taken less seriously anyway.