Chamber VI
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2026 Chamber VI resembles a decommissioned space capsule that may have landed here by chance or been deliberately deposited as space debris. The two deflated drogue parachutes, spreading limply across the ground behind the capsule, seem to confirm the vehicle’s former capacity for flight. The sculpture appears like the relic of an exploratory mission whose destination and outcome, however, remain unknown to us. At the same time, through its porthole, the technoid capsule also recalls a deep-sea research submarine. In this context, the artist refers to the so-called Point Nemo, the oceanic pole of inaccessibility, located in the middle of the South Pacific at a depth of around 4,000 metres. There, space debris – for example, parts of the International Space Station (ISS) – is deliberately brought down in a controlled re-entry in order to decay on the ocean floor. In Schulzek’s work, the highest heights and the deepest depths meet in spherical form.       The metallic object […] consists of ring-shaped components that are wedged into one another. The artist assembled them from both used and new materials that she herself has worked on. Tapering conically, these rings form central openings which […] Schulzek seals with a round window and a semi-transparent, spherical mirror, condensing the structure into a capsule-like form. While the interior of the sculpture contains emptiness, the layering of the curved glass creates the optical effect of a human eye. The viewer is thus met with a gaze—complete with iris, pupil, and the upside-down reflection of their own image. Two drogue parachutes, attached to the capsule by a thick rope, lie slack on the floor of the exhibition space. They evoke the impression of a space capsule that has just come to rest shortly after touching down on Earth.   In Chamber VI, a spherical mirror is embedded in the body of the capsule. Its curved surface not only produces a distorted, unstable image of the outer space surrounding it, but also contains a physical moment of latent danger: due to the curvature of the mirror, a focal point emerges within the interior of the capsule. Light is bundled, concentrated, and translated into potential heat. In this way, the work carries within it the possibility of its own destruction. What initially appears as an instrument of perception — as an eye, a window, or a reflective surface — simultaneously becomes a risk to the body of the sculpture itself. The capsule is not only a protective space, a housing, or a container, but a system that, under certain conditions, could ignite from within. The eye stands for perception. It refers to the human capacity not only to see the world, but to reflect upon it, to question it, and to place oneself in relation to it. The human being, like every planet and every star, is part of the universe. From this perspective, human life appears as the moment in which the universe brings forth an individual consciousness — a consciousness through which it can perceive and reflect upon itself. Mona Schulzek (the artist)       © Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman / WEST.Fotostudio |