Art in the Atrium

As the museum of Frankfurt, we explore the past, present and future of our city. Contemporary artistic pieces and viewpoints are regularly on display here. We invite visitors now to discover our newly created space for interventions in the Lichthof – a narrow, high atrium directly adjacent to the historic Rententurm (Toll Tower) with a very special atmosphere. The Rententurm was once the outer boundary of the city and is now incorporated into the museum’s architecture. Its partially exposed walls are visible from inside the museum, and the historic Toll Tower itself has been accessible to the public since 2012. 

The Lichthof is a bridge to distant eras and centuries: it connects the former 16th century city fortifications with the foyer of our new museum building, completed in 2018. The atrium is suggestively ambiguous, an area both inside and outside. Artistic positions in this in-between realm also deal specifically with questions of time and space.

WHAT IS BEHIND THAT CURTAIN

Curiosity is the art of questioning! The aesthetically brilliant installation by Cornelia F.Ch. Heier challenges viewers’ perceptions with a probing rhetorical question: WHAT IS BEHIND THAT CURTAIN. This is no mere invitation into the realm of the mysterious, hidden, enigmatic, or unknown, but an artistic demand for transparency in all relevant spheres of society. Heier thus manifests herself as an authentic zoon politikon, a social and political animal with steadfast democratic principles. 

She has created a monumental woven metal mesh curtain, dramatically kneaded into folds of reflecting light – a staged, symbolic display of power with fascinating plasticity and surface structure. Perhaps an 'Iron Curtain'?

But concealment also involves deception: Behind the curtain we discover a trompe-l'œil rendition of yet another curtain, closed or in the process of closing. It seems to be hiding something, holding secrets, even questioning reality: is there really something behind it?

A curtain as a work of art with an imposing presence: poetic, metaphorical and highly contemporary. It magically draws the viewer in and demands a closer examination of controversial social issues.

The Frankfurt artist Cornelia F.Ch. Heier (*1963, in Kassel), who works regularly in public spaces, studied sculpture and spatial concepts in Eberhard Bosslet's class for Interdisciplinary Art at the Dresden University of Fine Arts, where she graduated in 2000.
Characterized by their aesthetic diversity and precise spatial awareness, Heier’s works to date include installations, sculptures, objects, paintings and audios whose conceptual themes revolve constantly around elementary the existential questions of human life: Being and time, love, enthusiasm, transience and vanity, all within the context of social status. 

www.kunstheier.de
Text: Brigitta Amalia Gonser, Art Historian