Passage

Abstract

In the context of the group exhibition 'Modelling Life,' curated by Kevin Gallagher, Christiane Blattmann presents a new commission titled 'Passage' at Z33’s gallery, De Steeg. This installation is grounded in the archetypal form of a key, which serves as conceptual and formal foundation for a new series of sculptures. Blattmann employs materials taken from our built environment: steel, aluminium, fencing, corrugated PVC — paired with softer, more provisional materials such as stitched cotton, cardboard, or pigmented wax. Passing through the gallery, the viewers encounter forms that oscillate between the realms of model and architecture, serving as both entry points and obstacles.

Blattmann posits a tension between, on the one hand, the analog and the analogical—whereby objects point, metaphorically or metonymically, to realities beyond themselves—and on the other, a deadpan realism where the model has exhausted its referential potential.

'Passage' is thus characterized by an ambiguous nature, offering both access and barriers. Similar to a "rite of passage," a ritual that signifies the conclusion of one phase and the onset of another, Blattmann's installation becomes an enactment of growing into the world. True to life, 'Passage' does not present the viewers with a clear linear progression, but rather a room full of stops and starts—a nonsequential and textured narrative flow. From architecture, to model, to symbol and back again.