"key issues" – An installation created on the facade of the cultural center within the framework of the KCCC (Klaipeda Culture and Communication Center) artist residency, Lithuania 2011
This work consists exclusively of recycled materials (except for the paint), i.e., old, disused keys and interesting finds, which I collected little by little from bulky waste during my city walks in Klaipeda, painted orange for a uniform color concept, and finally installed as a temporary intervention on the half-timbered facade of the Klaipeda Culture and Communication Center within the white areas.
The idea was, so to speak, to uniform or unicolorize the assembled objects through the single-color coating and thereby create a color contrast to the white-green half-timbered facade of the building. Each individual part speaks its own language, has its own character, intervenes in the facade and alienates it by creating a new context between the elements.
The keys attached to the objects symbolically represent the elementary “key questions” that arise in difficult situations and at the numerous crossroads of our lives, where it is important to make the right or groundbreaking decision. At first glance, the orange objects appear like aliens and disruptive factors – which they are, in a way – to then demand a second or even third look from viewers, stimulating them to a process of reflection on their meaning. The keys installed in front of the facade are intended to encourage looking “behind the facade” or to “scratch” at it.
The catalyst for the artistic development of this key theme was the loss of the key to my quarters on the beach of the Curonian Spit – right on the first day of the artist residency.
In the artist's pub Balta Varna, located near my quarters, on the day of the loss – a public holiday when the cultural center's office was naturally closed, and I didn't know where to turn – I was actually able to organize a spare key in the evening through a few phone calls.
The old keys in the installation were a gift from the owner of the artist's pub, who pressed them into my hand with a smile a few days after the disaster day during my renewed visit.
This story was ultimately the trigger for the development of this installation and almost obligatory.