Christian Helwing

excerpt from artist Nr.73, 4/2007

Article by Joachim Kreibohm

Christian Helwing’s works prove that he has mastered the balancing act between art and architecture and that he succeeds in pleaching the different functions of different locations. He is neither a dreamer of illustrious perfection nor an ideologist of absolute autonomy. Excessiveness, pathos, and beauty are not insignia of his work. His art operates between model and reality, functionality and purposelessness, image and reality, between inside and outside. Helwing’s works reflect reality without dissolving into functional architecture; they are sculptural constructions beyond distinctly functional references. Constructions that are aimed at the imagination of space and motion. These works are abstract enough to rule out being mere representations of real architecture, and they are concrete enough to allow the development of association areas. They cannot be easily extended into reality, nor do they deny reality in a self-referential sense. Rather, Helwing’s works are both architecture and sculpture. Aesthetic, architectural, and social functions come together to consolidate in his work. Thus a completely new language emerges whose frame of reference is located somewhere between art and architecture.