Peter Weidenbaum

(Belgium) *1968 in Antwerp

The bronze-coated car wreck on display at “Blickachsen 10” in Bad Homburg’s Kurpark is part of Peter Weidenbaum’s “Car Crash” series. The artist has titled the sculpture “Alter Ego”, meaning “the other I” or “the second self”. Cars are often experienced as an extension of our own person: they are status symbols, dream objects, or stand for the thrill of speed. Until an accident brings the fantasy to a sudden end. This moment, in which everything changes, is what interests Peter Weidenbaum. His works do not investigate abstract theories but explore the question of whether art is able to translate the complexity of life into visual images. He understands “Alter Ego” as one such image: he transforms a damaged vehicle that can no longer be used as a means of transport by coating it with bronze and withdrawing it from the world of practical use. As an immobile art object and a metaphor, the work now confronts the viewer with the irreversible moment of the crash and calls up a wealth of different layers of meaning. “Alter Ego” thus describes not only the relationship of the individual to the car, but also the relationship between everyday object and art object.

Exhibits

Blickachsen 10