Wolf Kahlen
«Rope»

‘The process action ‘Rope’ inside and in front of the Amerika-Haus in Berlin during the ‘ADA’ festival is a severely objectified procedure intended to illustrate two simple forces by one object: a rope. Unlike a tug-of-war, during which the forces become invisible up to the point at which the rope forms an absolutely straight line, ‘Rope’ is a process which shows the countless stable shapes of fastenings, tensionings and torsions of a rope that is twisted at both ends. ‘Rope’ is a poetic play, effected by two separate hands, with determination and yieldingness, cause and effect, analogy and association. ‘Rope’ is only one building brick in the sum of complexity, and the lowest in rank. ‘Rope’ demarcates the outline, ‘Rope’ unravels the strands.’
Wolf Kahlen

Inside a locked room in ‘Amerika-Haus’ in Berlin, Wolf Kahlen twisted a rope. This action, conducted apparently in isolation, was projected by 50 video monitors into the public domain of the street. The monitors were installed in the barbed-wire fence that had screened off ‘Amerika-Haus’ for many years. Pieces of rope integrated in the barbed-wire invited passers-by and guests to take part.