Elephant in the Room

“Elephant in the Room” | Around 10m x 5,5 x 8mtr | Spraypaint and acrylic on wood | Collaboration with Onur

Assistance Urbaine Renard, Paddy74/Henning, MekiOne, Laurent Petit, UrbanArtRun, Active Giving, BoaOne, Marie-Louise Meyer and StaniOne

Exhibition initiated by Akkurat Studios

Kindly supported by Montana Cans | Brillux | Akkurat Studios

Berlin GER, 2019

“Elephant in the Room” describes an obvious problem that is in the room, but is not addressed by those present to avoid an argument.

Base23 works on this metaphor by installing a graphically abstract, oversized construction site in the room. For him, this symbolizes the as yet incomplete discussion and/or conflict, in terms of content it relates to the “repairing” and “renewing” of a place, in this case the solution to a problem, the “renewal” or “repair” of social interaction within a group of people. The symbol of a construction site is also confirmed by the chosen location: an empty garage that is torn down and gives way to a new building - in the figurative sense a new beginning.

Inspired by his place of residence Berlin and the permanent location of large construction sites, house renovations and construction sites in road traffic/local traffic, the artist finds analogies of apparently banal things here and in previous projects. He puts them in a new context in order to irritate the viewer who knows this "learned" visual language from his own urban living space. This effect is enhanced by color, light and dimension.

The work consists of two parts visually. When entering the room, everything appears white - the walls, the windows, the installation. The situation in which the viewer finds himself appears balanced and relatively calm. A UV-light switched in the interval and the darkening of the room make the “hidden” graphic elements applied with UV color abruptly visible on the installation. They visualize the luminous three-dimensional impression of a construction site and the character of a warning, a signal.