At the end of a long exploratory walk around the castle, STANISLAV KOLÍBAL reached the attic of the semicircular south wing. The structural interventions over the centuries had amounted to a random configuration there that bears an astounding similarity to the group of works [developed by KOLÍBAL in 1988] of ‘drawings’. The ‘drawing’ encountered in Buchberg is defined by the semicircular and rectangular spatial limitations of the attic room, by crossing iron clasps, by a hefty horizontal and a thin vertical wooden beam, as well as a brick-built chimney.

Over this ‘drawing’, as a kind of interpretation and appropriation of the existing situation, KOLÍBAL developed the model for a ‘construction’. The large circular wooden plate references the semicircularity of the room; squares, rectangles and semicircles are derived from the positions of other elements; the lines highlighted by aluminium profiles reproduce the clasps covered by the base plate. He did not change or manipulate the original ‘drawing’ in any way; it is – though partially concealed by the installation – completely preserved.

The circular base plate of the Buchberg ‘construction’ rests on a recessed pedestal, which makes the construction appear to hover over the floor. Aluminium profiles lie loosely on the vertical partitions; the woodworm-riddled beam holding the ceiling of the room beneath is encased in white plastic panels, the brick chimney in contrast is coated in surfaces of black sheet iron. None of the vertical elements is taller than 100 cm. At no point does the installation enter into a relationship with the existing structural elements. KOLÍBAL ensured that the conceptual context between ‘drawing’ and ‘construction’ is clearly legible yet did not integrate the old in the new but emphatically separated them from one another; as a result, he achieves the impression of a state of suspension between integration and otherness. This balance is enhanced by the use of widely differing materials: they range from the roughly planed wooden planks of the bearing plate and black and rust-red iron, which reference aspects of the attic, to sheet aluminium and transparent plastic to the immaterial lightness of the blue-glowing fluorescent light. Another characteristic consists in the contrast between the precision of the new construction and the aged and weathered condition of the attic: the broken screed of the floor, the weathered mortar on the walls, the centuries-old roof truss, etc. The resulting tension between geometric and informal design is not only characteristic of the ‘drawings’ with their process-related corrections and blurring, but also constitutes a fundamental theme in KOLÍBAL’s oeuvre.

(Revised excerpt from the text by Dieter Bogner in KOLÍBAL RAUMKONZEPT BUCHBERG XI, 1994)

First presentation in the context of the Buchberger Sommer 1992 [Buchberg Summer 1992]

www.stanislavkolibal.cz