Introduction
The house with things behind includes a storage space behind the lightblue facade.
In Flavien’s short story, the friends Baku and Alexis live in front and behind the house: one is concerned with maintaining the facade and the outdoor area – revelling in the sky-blue and the sun – whilst the other spends his time sorting out and lending form to the things in storage and behind the house. Both are occupied with the upkeep of the house, which gives each of them a particular function, and divides their movement radius into ‘in front’ and ‘behind’. They interact with the house and are simultaneously actors in the mise-en-scène of the house.
This scenario also reveals itself to the visitors who experience the house from different perspectives. Though a distanced outside view is possible, the fusing of the house with its outside areas, and the exhibition space, involves the viewer in the surrounding composition. In the same way, the fixed categories of inside and outside are shifted. Yet this does not involve spatial expansion alone. Rather, the common ideas surrounding spaces and their functions are up for debate.
The ideas laid out by the model of the house with things behind unfold with extensive potential in the hall of the Heidelberger Kunstverein: the house opens up individual experiences on differing levels for each of the visitors. It is a counterpart which demands new exchanges and new perspectives, fostering reflections on constructed environments and living spaces.