SMACH
Constellation of art, culture and history
Dolomites
2017
„Der Haps“ ist eine Wahrnehmungserfahrung. Die beiden Künstler Amin Hak-Hagir und Irene Hopfgartner stellen auf einem Hügel inmitten einer isolierten Alm ein schwarzes Prisma mit quadratischer Grundfläche auf. Das Kunstobjekt weckt Neugierde und Erregung, die durch den starken Kontrast mit dem Kontext hervorgerufen werden. Der Besucher, der näher kommt, sieht, dass es sich um einen schalltoten Raum handelt, in den er eintreten kann, wobei er sich von den Klängen, Geräuschen und dem Licht von außen absondert; durch die fehlenden Reize fokussiert er sich fast notwendigerweise auf sich selbst. Beim Verlassen des geschützten Raumes erlebt der Besucher eine Überempfindlichkeit, die seine Wahrnehmung eines ihm vertrauten, aber gleichzeitig neuen Szenariums ändert.
“Der Haps” is a perceptual experience. Artists Amin Hak-Hagir and Irene Hopfgartner place a black prism with a square base on top of a hill in the middle of an isolated plot. The art object arouses curiosity and irritation, the result of the sharp contrast with the setting. A viewer that decided to get closer, would see that it is an anechoic chamber that a person can enter to isolate himself completely from outside sounds, noises and light; the lack of stimuli will make people focus almost necessarily on themselves. Upon abandoning the safe space, the viewer shall experience a form of hypersensitivity that will change his feeling before a view that is familiar but new at the same time.
Der HAPS
Idea / Concept:
Amin Hak-Hagir
Planning, Design and Development:
Irene Hopfgartner, Amin Hak-Hagir
Making of „Der Haps“…
Experience report by @youshouldgohere
„Look closely. After two hours of All Up on this lonely trail on a mountaintop in the middle of nowhere is this stark black box. flip thru the pics. An art installation. No directional signs to it. No path. You just see it on the lip of a ridge. A black column in the distance that looks like the ending of the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey. Which I never got the meaning. Yet you are drawn to it meandering across a field of wildflowers. Drawn by its manmade oddity of being out here in this glorious nature. Its only until you get close that you see the small plaque. A deion of this odd scene. You open the door and its a black abyss. An anechoic chamber a box lined with sound absorbing foam. You go in and sit on the plastic seat. The door slams shut. There is Nothing. Emptiness. No sound. No light. Only the sound of you panting from the altitude. Alone in this dark cube in this remarkable setting to only here you. Read the last slide it explains it all. This. Out here. In the middle of nowhere. God I love traveling…. Forgive the bad shot of the insides. It was impossible to capture. The door slams shut and there was only moi and my big foot could only go so far.“
„Im still thinking about this crazy box. I wrote briefly about this whilst it was happening then so forgive me for talking about it again. But still I cant get it out of my head. A few weeks ago. Ona hike. By myself. On a not-busy trail in the Italian Dolomites. After two hours of climbing straight upupup gasping for air like a tadpole in a muddy pond or the guppies in the cloudy fish tank that is the Smoking Box at Frankfurt airport. 🤢 I rounded the corner just above Tree Line. Ahead a Sound of Music-like grassy knoll surrounded by shark tooth mountains on all sides. And this alien object. Out here in the middle of nowhere. Way up high. How did it get all the way up here? A shiny black prism all by itself on a steep ridge. The edges all sharp and straight and black. In total contrast to the natural curves lush greens and watery blues all around. There was no sign for it on the main trail 100m away. No path that leads to it. Not even bent grass to entice you. This strange shape alone a magnetic draw that pulls you through the nodding wildflowers. You only notice the small plaque when youre thisclose to it. An art piece. Here. In the middle of nowhere but right where you are. Theres a door you open it. Inside is a small chair you sit down the door slams shut. Pitch black. Not a sound. The whole box is lined with acoustic foam that sucks up any and all noise except whats in your breath your head. Your pulsing veins. The door sealed tight the wind and light and screaming mountains outside… gone. Just you in the quiet dark surrounded by all this loud beauty. To think. And listen. To you. A recording studio for your soul. Who thought of this? I would like to thank them. Still enjoying the mental leftovers weeks later. In the midst of all this wondrous nature damn humans can be cool. …“