2024
Five prisms made of optical glass—enlarged replicas based on Fraunhofer’s originals—are suspended in the stairwell, transforming the building’s interior into a luminous space infused with the colors of the solar spectrum. A precisely engineered daylight guidance system, extending Chroma to the building’s roof surfaces, redirects sunlight onto the prisms, allowing them to interact with the ever-changing light.
As a dynamic, ever-changing installation, Chroma creates a sensory connection between the building’s users and the natural phenomena outside, making the interplay of optics and color an integral part of the architectural experience.
public art, installation
Chroma, 2024
Light deflection system, mirrors, prisms, stainless steel, spectral colors of the sun
Public art installation, SPiN building, Fraunhofer-Institut Stuttgart-Vaihingen / Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft München
Heidenheim, with its geographic location at the edge of the Danube valley, plays an important role in the region's gravel and concrete industry. From the foyer to the fourth floor, the exposed concrete surfaces of the building are traversed by an abstract, linear relief.
This relief traces the course of the Brenz River – from its source north of Heidenheim to its confluence with the Danube.
Within the lines of the relief, the cement paste of the exposed concrete was removed in fine layers by sandblasting, revealing what is usually hidden within the material. The various types and colors of gravel – carried by water and originating from diverse geological sources – embedded in the concrete are made visible.
These treated surfaces connect the building's levels and invite visitors to experience them not only visually, but also through touch – to quite literally grasp them as they move through the space.
public art
Im Fluss, 2023
sandblasted concrete
2000 cm x 800 cm
In-situ public art, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg, WCM-Areal Heidenheim, Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg
2022
The starting point for the works presented at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is a collection of soil and rock samples gathered by the artist from locations around the world. Based on laboratory analysis, she creates artworks that reveal the materiality and diversity of these natural substances. Zenger’s scientifically poetic engagement with the elemental aspects of nature contributes to the broader societal discourse on environmental and nature conservation.
After studying architecture, Hannah Zenger completed her fine arts studies at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart in 2019. Frischzelle_28 marks her first solo exhibition in a museum context.
exhibition
Frischzelle_28, 2022
Solo-exhibition, curated by Arne Schmidt
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
2022
In a multi-stage process in which fine earth dust is washed over glass panes, images are created that in turn are reminiscent of landscapes. Like visual equivalents of barren topographies, their forms are shaped by the forces of the elements—a translation of natural processes and phenomena that occur on a much larger scale in the environment.
The composition of the earths, their distinctive colors and textures, each tied to their place of origin, flows across the glass in painterly gestures and interacts with the wall.
installation, wall
Sedimente, 2022
12-piece wall installation,
soils, glass, steel
each 140 × 100 × 14 cm
Collection Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
2022
The five rammed earth objects were handcrafted using traditional processes and naturally occurring, colored earth from Belgium and Germany.
installation, object
Pisé, 2022
5 sculptures
rammed earth, skids
each 85 × 70 × 70 cm
2022
In collaboration with scientific laboratories, the plants undergo a series of transformations: they are incinerated (Aschen), extracted (Extrakte), and subjected to an ash-melting process (Ascheschmelzverhalten). While the procedures follow scientific protocols, the project simultaneously probes the boundary between artistic practice and scientific analysis.
In the laboratory, the dried biomass is burned under controlled conditions. What remains is a modest grey ash. But once all organic matter has been removed, an unexpected range of colors emerges. A subsequent elemental analysis reveals the chemical composition of the plants – and of the landscapes from which they originate.
In a further step, the samples undergo Soxhlet extraction. A special solvent draws out the plants’ volatile substances. The resulting extracts, in liquid form, reveal a delicate spectrum of colors – a sensory and scientific testament to the plant world.
wall, installation
Transformationen: Biomassen
40-piece wall installation
collected plants, bags
each 22 x 16 cm
Transformationen: Aschen
37-piece wall installation
incinerated plants, glass vials
each 6,5 × Ø 3 cm
Transformationen: Extrakte
33-piece wall installation,
extracted plant-dissolution, glass vials
each 14,5 × Ø 3,4 cm
2022
A multi-part laboratory glass installation, a stainless steel table, and a video piece form an experimental arrangement that interweaves aesthetic, material, and epistemological questions. Here too, the boundaries between artistic and scientific approaches to nature are deliberately kept open and continuously explored.
video, installation
Extraktionen: Soxhlet, 2022
installation of 10 laboratory glass apparatus
laboratory glass apparatus, extractions, biomasses, tripods, table
200 x 200 x 70 cm
Soxhlet-extraction, photographed and filmed in a chemistry labratory
Video, 30 min.
2022
During this renewed heating process, the ash undergoes vitrification – it sinters and becomes glass-like. The ash of the original plant and biomass material is heated beyond its individual melting point, dissolving on the carrier plate into its natural, elemental structure.
At first glance, the microscopically small sample plates from the Ascheschmelzverhalten analysis appear to show nothing more than colored dots. But through macrophotography, a closer look reveals an unexpected depth within the material. Hidden worlds become visible – each one unique in its color and form.
In their diversity, these miniature landscapes reach far beyond their botanical origin, evoking associations, memories, and dreams. They become symbols of condensed time, brought to a temporary halt in the stillness of glass – the final stage of their transformation.
object, wall
Ascheschmelzverhalten, 2022
55 specimen
biomasses, aluminium oxide
each 1,2 x 1 cm
40 photographs
c-prints, magnets
each 54 × 48 cm
exhibition
On Earth, 2022
Solo-exhibition, end of residency
Kulturpark Dettinger
2022
By suspending these floor impressions at eye level, a surprising shift occurs: the overlooked becomes visible. The golden translucence of the latex lends the work a near-sacral quality, allowing for a present-day encounter with the history embedded in the ground.
"Rooms are shells, they are skins. Peel off one skin after the other, discard it: the repressed, the neglected, the wasted, the lost, the sunken, the flattened, the desolate, the reversed, the diluted, the forgotten, the persecuted, the wounded." Heidi Bucher
installation
Steingießerei, 2022
three-part latex cast of the historic end-grain wood floor of the former stone foundry at Kulturpark Dettinger, Plochingen
Latex, gauze, steel
each 250 x 100 cm
2022: On Earth, Kulturpark Dettinger, Plochingen