Mars II

Until everything judders to a halt

In Mars II Karl Van Welden tells a poetic story about how catastrophes affect our thinking. Today, Western philosophy is permeated by a sense of constant threat. Ecological disasters, economic crises and terrorist attacks seem always to be hanging over our heads. We are completely under the spell of potential risks and scenarios to avoid them, even though, oddly enough, we have usually set them in motion. Do we humans need such stories, just as a child enjoys a creepy tale? Do we need them as a kind of secular ‘memento mori’, a reminder of our mortality?

In this musical performance, a rain of ash floats down onto a musician and his instrument. Initially the ash particles seem innocent, but their impact on the musician and his music slowly becomes visible. Sound and vision gradually transform – until finally everything judders to a halt. 

• How does ‘little’ man relate to the ‘grandeur’ of the universe? This is a recurring question in Karl Van Welden’s work. Using the planets in our solar system as an anchor point, he seeks visual answers to this all-important question, with a great fondness for still movement and architectural form. Previously we presented his successful Saturn II and the installation A Fall.

#destruction #nowords