THE ARCH OF THE WIND
DESCRIPTION OF THE SCULPTURE ”THE ARCH OF THE WIND” CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, LAUINGEN The plot of land
in Lauingen on which the Center for Environmental Protection now stands contains the foundation walls of Phoebiana, an ancient Roman settlement. Hence, a new building which is dedicated to the ecological ideas of our century rests
directly upon relics of the histor-ical past. Just as Roman law intervened and ordered society, so too the Center for Environmental Protection is meant to be a source of impulses which will give order to the way our society
intervenes in Nature. In terms of its design, the connection between the artwork and the Roman settlement is achieved by repeating, atop the arch, a figure whose shape is identical with the
outlines of the nearby subterranean foundation that originally supported the eastern gateway to Phoebiana. Buried and out of sight, the fragments of this wall symbolize the past; by transferring their outlines to the top of the new
artwork, they are symbolically unearthed again. The ancient form and its present-day reflection invoke a magnetic field of energy. The Roman archeological site beneath the soil clings to the clouds so that the relics of an ancient
era are focused to create a new symbol for the present day. Each morning at dawn, the long shadow cast by the sculpture glides across the invisible signs from the past that lie buried beneath the lawn beside the artwork; in the
course of the day, the shadow gradually traces an arc from one side of the sculpture to the other. On both its sides, the steel sculpture bears a quotation from the famous speech which Chief Seattle addressed to the president of
the United States. Translated into fourteen languages, Seattle’s words remind the sculpture’s viewers that ”WE ARE A PART OF THE EARTH AND IT IS A PART OF US”. His urgent call for a different way of dealing with nature spans the
space between the buildings in Lauingen. By elevating and anchoring a form which is shaped like a bird’s-eye view of the buried, archived foundations of the Roman eastern gate-way onto
a second plane, the sculpture reflects the invisible, raises it atop a semi-oval arch, and thus acquires a magical and mysterious aura. It makes the past visible, leads the past into the present, and from there into the future. It
bridges times and spaces, Nature and technology, Earth and sky. Perhaps a more conscious way of dealing with Nature, technology, the Earth, water, air and wind will save us. This will be decisive for our future. The Center for
Environmental Protection in Lauingen stands for this indispensable task. In far too many places throughout the world, Seattle’s 1855 cry is still ignored today. The inscription of his words onto the reflection of the foundations of
a Roman settlement, which forges a link to the roots of our own legal system, attempts to show that the words of this Native American must be heeded, must acquire the force of law for us today.
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION The sculpture and construction are made of 8-mm-thick iron slabs. The two planes of the body are separated by 40-cm-tall struts.
The surface is coated with iron-mica paint.
DIMENSIONS/WEIGHT Dimensions: length = 14.40 m; width = 5.50 m; height = 7. 20 m; weight = circa 15 tons.