“Possible” by Peter Weibel

Title:

Possible

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Artist Statement:

Fusion of the Possible, Topographie de l’art, April 15 – June 15

1969
Installation with projector and self-adhesive letters.
Courtesy of ZKM, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

An 8mm or 16mm projector projects light onto the wall with the word ‘possible’ appearing on it. The projector is set up in such a way that the audience should/have to walk between the wall and the projector. The following happens: just by looking at it, it seems as if the word ‘possible’ (in red or black color) is being projected onto the wall.But as they walk through it, the viewer realizes that the word must have been written directly on the wall, because despite the interruption of the projection beam and the viewer’s shadow, the word is still on the wall. What seemed a projected sign, an image, is in reality an object. The real seemed (projected) illusion, the illusion became real – everything seems possible. This open modality of being, this constant latency of the category of possibility in the world, comes in the chosen one
(Peter Weibel, Mediendichtung, Vienna 1982, S. 95) [Translated from Germanb by Google Translate]