My Space (Mein Raum)

2022
Electric light cord, dimensions variable
In Urwald Riegelsberg

Photo: Daniel Hausig

This work explores how an external place can become a personal space. Throughout history, humans have marked off areas within nature in order to create a place of their own. For this work, I chose a site in the forest and enclosed it with an electric light cord. For a moment, I draw a boundary within the natural landscape and claim the enclosed area as my space.

After looking at the illuminated line for a while and then closing my eyes, its form reappears as an afterimage within my field of vision. The boundary that marked an external space moves through perception into my own body. The space that existed outside becomes an image experienced within.

In this process, the physical boundary is detached from the place itself and becomes part of my own perception. The external space is not simply observed or possessed; through the afterimage, it enters the body and becomes my space.