Wappen is a concept for an exterior installation on the Kammer der Technik building which houses the art space Weltecho.
Wappen, or coat of arms, identifies Weltecho as a citadel of the art world. In place of a shield, this coat of arms holds an icon which takes form only after an act by the observer.
The installation is 10 x 10 meter sign mounted on the northern façade. The shape of the sign forms a white cube. The white cube is depicted as a three-dimensional representation of a tesseract, or hypercube. Its contours are defined by retroreflective sheeting; the image becomes revealed or obscured contingent on ambient light.
A white cube is a term used to describe a contemporary gallery or art space; the white cube houses art objects and presents the viewer with a void for the unadulterated reception of artwork. A white cube provides a timeless space; furthermore the burdens of its physical location and influence of the exterior world are diminished. Not all art spaces conform to this white cube classification, nonetheless identifying a location as a white cube readily conveys the underlying archetype. Like a flag driven into a mountaintop, the emblem of a white cube on the building brands the Kammer der Technik as an art space.
In Wappen, the depiction of the cube is shown as a hypercube; this image extends the metaphor of the white cube into four-dimensional space. As we are bound to three-dimensional space, we cannot directly experience the fourth dimension. Like the arts, the abstract concept of the fourth-dimension cannot be held or touched and is only made material when imagined.
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