Home range (Revier)
Competition for the plazadesign in front of the Amazon Building (EDGE East Side), Warschauer Brücke, Berlin; 2021
Material: Sandblasted stainless steel sheets, welded from individual elements as if folded from paper.
A herd of gazelles moves across the plaza, connecting the Eastside Mall and Edge Eastside to the Warschauer Bridge, entirely undisturbed by the surrounding city. Their movement cuts across the flow of pedestrians, creating a scene that embodies calm, security, and the presence of nature – a striking counterpoint to the hectic, ever-changing metropolis. The animals exist in their own sphere, untouched by humans, bringing a moment of quiet into the passageway of the plaza.
Why gazelles? I deliberately chose a species from another continent to emphasize the surreal, almost ghostly quality of the work. Their oversized scale, juxtaposed with fragile stature, intensifies this effect. In reality, as prey animals, gazelles would naturally be wary of humans. Here, however, the dominance of humans is reversed.
In both zoology and human social and behavioral geography, a “territory” refers to the area an animal regularly roams as part of its activities. The title therefore also reflects humanity’s way of appropriating the world. Whose territory will the plaza at the Warschauer Bridge become? Most likely, passersby will interact with the sculptures in some way – by sticking things on them, spraying them, or locking bicycles to them. This is intentional, reflecting the human relationship with the environment.
Wolf von Waldow, 2021
