spectral splendour ZEHS Freiberg

SPECTRAL SPLENDOUR is a 7 m-long and 2 m-high light image in the foyer of the ZeHs. The placement of the glass image on the long wall of the foyer creates another light source within this space as well as the illusion of another window. Thus, the subsequent laboratory and research rooms open not only on a spatial level for staff and visitors but also content-wise through the light and transparency of the glass. Light and temperature stand in a direct causal relationship. Therefore, the light inside the work SPECTRAL SPLENDOUR has an important significance. Light here is an expression of technical and material analysis. Additionally, the various refractions and reflections of the glass colors in the foyer create a captivating atmosphere, artfully contrasting with the building’s architecture.

The glass image is oriented in the motif, on the one hand, to Freiberg’s history and, on the other, to the blast furnaces of ore processing. These form in the background an abstract surreal landscape, interrupted by the crystalline mineral structures in the foreground. At the same time, this arrangement creates a “above” and “below,” or a reversal of the microcosm and macrocosm. The old mines and blast furnaces move into the background both spatially and temporally. The viewing of the mineral structures in the foreground becomes the core of the image and thus one of the tasks of the ZeHs: the analysis and determination of crystal structures in their application to new innovative material processes. The color bands that cut through the image are intended on an ideal level to evoke a fundamental method of spectral analysis used in materials research. The use of red-yellow tones in contrast to blue-violet should further emphasize the temperature divergences of high-temperature processes at the institute. The vitality, or the steady progression and flow of research and teaching at the Institute for Efficient High-Temperature Material Transformation of TU Freiberg, is highlighted in the flowing landscape between the architectures. SPECTRAL SPLENDOUR as a title summarizes these interpretative possibilities once again: methodology of analysis, temperature, light, and the innovation of new processing processes for technology, industry, and people.