Hans Schabus: Das Rendezvousproblem

Let's get lost: best known for his installations and artistic explorations, often recorded on video, Hans Schabus here transforms the entire Peter Zumthor-designed Kunsthaus Bregenz into a complex and convoluted architectonic and mental path of discovery in search of both the self and the building's history. At the museum Schabus blocks the main entrance, requiring admission through a loading dock; the ground floor holds pond liner, topped with puddles, fire hoses and pumps to recall the deluge of 1999, when the Kunsthaus was flooded by Lake Constance; the darkened second floor's projection space documents Schabus's train trips to the museum; and he transforms the third floor into a disorienting “white cube,” undermining the standard notion of exhibition space. This book, designed in cooperation with the artist, traces his strategy through images, conceptual plans and texts (including Friedrich Dürrenmatt's short story “The Tunnel”, and provides a complete record of this highly-regarded emerging artist's most ambitious work to date.