The roof of the Neue Nationalgalerie is supported solely by eight columns around its perimeter. This design allows for a structure whose enormous interior space is nearly entirely open. plan 2: octagonal prisms – reconstructing a column reacts against this spatial arrangement by erecting a column within the museum’s interior. The work, which is lightweight and movable, consists of thin brass bars and metal cables arranged in a system of tensional integrity – or “tensegrity” as it was named by Buckminster Fuller. Tension between the elements balances the bars and the cables, giving volume to the structure and allowing plan 2: octagonal prisms – reconstructing a column to take form.
Performative as well as sculptural, the work is repeatedly de- and reconstructed during the course of the exhibition, each time being moved around within the space. Nearly touching the ceiling, the object articulates and makes explicit the scale of the Neue Nationalgalerie’s massive open space.