Open End II: Respirations 2: Spiritu divino
Open End II is a followup of a 2016 exhibition in the ’Cemetary of Kings’ in the heart of Geneva. it is open till January 31th 2023 and exposes the pieces of about 20 contemporary artists.
Spiritu divino? is the second part of the trilogy ’Respirations’, by Xavier Sprüngli, the first one gave literally an audible new breath to Jean Calvin’s graveyard.
This second opus is addressed to the heavens: Creativity, inspiration, respiration, spirit… All these words make us look up despite the fact that during these moments we draw a lot on our roots and ancestors.
This installation makes the link between the worlds: The candles as a remembrance of the past flickers in the breeze of the celestial winds to give birth to ephemeral words that only a distant and attentive gaze will grasp.
It consist on a 7 stage candle holder for red cemetery lights, 6 m long, with 60 candles in a row. Instead of a real candle, a controlled Led into the pot will mimics the behavior of the candles and will be programmed to make the words appear.
Why a crowdfunding?
Unless you’re already a rich and renowned artist, it is quite difficult to finance the creation of such a multidisciplinary project.
We have therefore chosen to finalize it thanks to you. If, as in the church, we make the support available, it is up to those who wish to place a candle there.
Before an accurate budget can be done, most of the technical design must be determined, This involves specialists and artisans that should be paid for the project to take shape.
Then the realization takes hundreds of hours: only for the electronic part of the project there is about 3’000 welds to make by hand.
Response times of some institutional organizations are incompatible with delays of creation, once the work has been approved by the exhibition’s organization.
And there is a certain probability that the piece will eventually be sold, and this is also a real obstacle to get some funds.
This free exhibition is a way to open the contemporary art’s door to everyone. Art is one of the foundation of civilizations
Bakers will make this idea come true up to its final realization. The end is open.
They will eventually participate to the up cycling of the hardware if the project isn’t sold as whole.
What is left now?
As there is 417 lights, we rounded the project’s requirements to CHF 41’700 or CHF 100 / candle.
This project is already partly funded. About 20% is already done.
The metal working has been crafted by a Geneva’s City workshop. They only require a refund if the piece is sold. The metal and work represents about CHF 6000.-. instead of paint we choose to work with Corten steel that doesn’t need any toxic treatment.
All the remaining hardware has been financed on the exhibition’s budget share for every artist. We have all the candle holders, Leds, printed circuit boards, connectors… for about CHF 2000.-
Luc designed everything in details: circuits, structure, assemblies, 3D printed parts. He also created the character font and designed all the software needed for the complete system. This represents about CHF 4000.- of investment.
We estimate that another 150 man-hours are needed to weld the circuits, 3D print the plastic and rubber parts, install everything on the structure make the wirings and the tests. Estimated cost is 19’500.-
There is about 100 man-hours of software development and tests; programming of realistic effects tests, integration of the texts. Cost is about CHF 13’000.-
We finally need about 50 man-hours of tuning to adjust all the effects once the real object is finalized, for a cost of 6500.-
The platform fees will add about CHF 4000.-
As there is 417 lights, we rounded the total to CHF 41’700 or CHF 100 / candle.
The insured value of the piece is CHF 50’000, this represents the cost of reproduction, if it is totally destroyed during the exhibition…
