Silence Room

The Silence Room, located directly above the painting storage area, is the first room accessible to museum visitors during opening hours. Precisely in the center of the room is the “H-Hole” drilled through the floor. This vertical hole in the floor has a diameter of 20 cm. As one approaches the center, the floor becomes soft and uneven, raising the viewer’s awareness of this spatial zone and allowing them to feel the work’s presence more intensely.

If one attempts to peer through the hole in the floor of the Silence Room into the Treasure Room, the symbol of the “H-Map” placed in the Treasure Room glows with a special brilliance, highlighting the energy center of the work and the museum.

A circular, transparent acrylic basin, installed within the slightly raised floor directly above the “H-Hole,” draws attention to a specific content of the work in the Silence Room. The floor of the pool is covered with water, which is gently set in motion by the approaching visitor and a rhythmically falling drop of water. A “Rose of Jericho,” a symbol of rebirth and the eternity of life, lies in the pool.

The water casts reflections of the light figure onto the ceiling. This ceiling consists of a kind of dome of light containing a spiral-shaped figure. If the visitor stands almost in the center under the opening and begins to speak, they hear their own voice with increased intensity. The dome is flanked on both sides by neon tubes illuminated by black light, which further sensitizes the approaching visitor to the specific lighting situation of this space.

Water droplets drip into the pool from the ceiling of the StilleRaum in irregular rhythms. Visitors moving to the center of the installation and observing the work are occasionally surprised by drops falling into the basin or, occasionally, onto their heads, and are led to the trail of the event’s origin, seeking an explanation for something that shouldn’t actually be there.

In the ceiling of the room, next to the “HHole,” a miniature video camera is installed, recording the visitors viewing it in real time. The images captured here are transmitted to a video monitor located along with other monitors on the exhibition level above.

On the floor of the StilleRaum, in the immediate vicinity of the “HHole,” several footprints mark several special locations of the work. If the viewer stands on or near the footprints and directs their gaze upwards to the ceiling and through the hole there, they will discover various video images in the upper exhibition space, depending on their location, and—perhaps by chance—the face of another visitor.