A house within a house made of coloured acrylic panels not only catches the light but also the eye on Worringer Platz, flashing luminously out of the grey hustle and bustle of everyday life, in an urban place of constant unrest and movement. Built of a material known for its luminosity, it manages entirely without electricity. A wooden skeleton supports the luminous outer skin, which consists of windows rather than walls. The glass Palace sets the stage for the architecture inside. For a house that is not completely closed, but leaves room for manoeuvre and is open to outside influences.

The structure is based on the glass architecture of the Palace and is true to scale with the exhibition space. A house within a house that allows a double view and creates spaces in between. Just like the Palace itself, which provides a home for the realisation of new ideas for a wide variety of artists.

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What is home? Home can be a feeling that takes physical root.

A safe place where all the daily necessities take place, which is a haven for warmth and intimacy. Home can also be people, quite independent of a physical anchor point. But more and more people are leaving their ancestral home, whether due to globalisation or migration. They are constantly on the move, nomadically moving from place to place. Far from home,

they are looking for a connection, needing to find familiarity

in a foreign land despite homesickness.

In addition, we increasingly move in non-physical, virtual spaces that can feel just as homely depending on how they are used. They allow direct contact with people all over the world, playfully overcoming previously seemingly insurmountable distances. How does this affect the concept of home? If the internet effortlessly connects people across borders, perhaps thinking will also become borderless? These are questions that the Barcelona-born artist Íngrid Pons i Miras repeatedly asks herself in her work. After studying music at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona, she moved to Düsseldorf in 2012 and graduated as a master student in 2022 in the stage design class with Johannes Schütz and

in succession with Lena Newton.

Pons i Miras was inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 art fairy tale "The Sandman", which deals with the ambivalent relationship between man and automaton. The main character Nathanael is told stories in the evening about the Sandman, who puts sand in the eyes of children who do not want to fall asleep. Once the most important sensory organ is switched off, reality is no longer perceived objectively, but is dominated by one's own ideas and anxiety dreams. In Hoffmann's work, fire and heat are the motif

for Nathanael's increasing madness and are used

as an announcement of change.

Scepticism towards technical innovations is deeply rooted in society.

What is the automated doll in Hoffmann's work can be seen today in particular in the discussion about artificial intelligence, which often focuses on negative aspects. But perhaps change also holds an opportunity, depending on how it is used? A chance to grasp the world in a new way, to perceive things differently, to get in touch with people. Pons i Miras' house, built of flaming walls, glows like a fire. A house that does not isolate,

does not exclude, but provides a home in a sphere

between the physical and the non-physical.

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Artist: Íngrid Pons i Miras

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Text: Julia Stellmann

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Photo: Christian Ahlborn

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Poster: RUNNING WATER

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The exhibition is supported by:

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