Medius Locus − Earth, Bowl and Man

A permanent outdoor video installation and sculpture created specifically for Eriksminde Continuation School, Odder, Denmark.

The work will become part of the everyday life of the school, but it can be seen from quite a distance as you approach. From around dusk a video picture of the Earth seen from space is projected onto the back of the school’s most recent extension. The radiant globe hangs there as a symbol of the school and the spirit that is peculiar to the place. The picture of the slowly rotating world reminds us of the immense, incomprehensible universe of which we are part, and at the same time points to the basic fact that the world is a globe that we inhabit and must take care of.

On the other side of the new extension, the side facing the lungs of the school in the form of the newly established green courtyard, the second video installation also begins at dusk. At a leisurely pace pictures of everyone attached to the school, teachers, auxiliary staff and pupils are projected as full-length portraits. The installation is soundless, but indoors, in the adjacent room, you can hear the photographed figures saying their names.

The third element of the installation is a sculpture in the form of a golden bronze bowl or the bottom of a sphere with a diameter of 6.5 meters and a depth of 0.7 meters placed in the ground so that the edge of the bowl is flush with the surface of the ground. It is a sculpture that can be used in play or as a shelter from the wind in which one can lie and warm oneself in the sun. From a distance the sculpture forms a calm and warm circular disc.

By showing the living picture of the Earth in rotation on one side of the building and on the other side the pictures of the people to be found at Eriksminde right now, the project points to two extremes in human life: the universal − the incomprehensible contrasted with the down-to-earth, our everyday reality. The reality that is also the body in play, and the body in its encounter with the world, represented by the school’s new centre, the golden bowl.

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Eva Koch © 2013/ The People/Unmasked HD10x16 /Audio: mono/ 28:34 minutes
Contractor: John Kjær v. Ole Hansen · Almind Værk: Knud Erik Andersen · Jubo Metal AS: Bjarne Møller, Kim Madsen and Lars Calundan · Photographer: Stefan Wrenfeldt · Picture editor: Anja Farsig · Sound editor: Lea Korsgaard · Picture processing: Henrik Lago · Installation: Odder Tømrer og Snedkerforretning v. Peder Skipper · Presentation design: AB and Avenue. AV · Documentation: Peter Klode · Text: Mai Misfeldt · Many thanks to the New Carlsberg Foundation, NASA and all you who have participated.