A SYMBOL FOR WATER

THE WATERSIGN AT HANOVER-LANGENHAGEN AIRPORT

Hanover and its environs lie within a landscape which is characterized by waterways and extensive marshlands. Water has always been a dominant element in the lives of the people who live here. This intimate, long-term relationship to water has engendered myths and fantasies all its own.

       For more than two years, I’ve been planning to design an artwork which, on the occasion of the turn of the millennium, would symbolize the fundamental significance of water. In my design for this symbol,

I want to disclose the ancient roots and bridge the gap from there to our present-day view and to future views of the phenomenon of water.

       Krähenwinkel, the location which is best suited for this symbol, lies in the northern air corridor used by planes landing at and taking off from Hanover Airport in Langenhagen.

       Though flying from place to place in airplanes has become an

everyday, almost prosaic event, whenever we fly we nonetheless

experience primordial human feelings whose effects we cannot escape. Speed and distance create a vantage point which changes our habits

of seeing and shifts our visual attention. My goal was to create a symbol which would be distinct from the structure of the landscape and which, in a rhythmical way, would be emblematic of the power which water has for us today and which it will doubtless continue to have in the years which come after us. A sign of art, for art and for Nature, this ”Watersign” is intended to be dug into the Earth so that the its furrows will fill with water. Since water is such an effective reflector of the light and since the reflections on the groundwater’s surface will be framed by dark, solid soil, water and earth will encounter one another as equals. At the same time, these two extremely different elements will enter into a new harmony: water reflects the sky, the passing clouds, the sunlight, the stars and the moon. In the winter, snow will border the water’s dark surface.

       Invoking the intimate connection between water, Nature and human beings, this sign affirms the immediacy of our dependence upon water, without which our sheer survival would be impossible.

The sign is meant to serve as an emissary whose message is the urgent need, especially in Lower Saxony, to treat this scarce and precious commodity with care and respect. Millions of people visit Hanover’s trade fairs each year. Many of them arrive by airplane or railroad, and

it is these travelers to whom the Watersign will be a greeting and a farewell. The notice taken of this artwork can be put to good use as the primal alliance between humankind and water engenders a new emblem of this jeopardized allegiance. For the years after the turn of the millennium, the Watersign’s site can serve as an enduring symbol of the new experience and new awareness of the preciousness of water. Because the Watersign will be created from a sensitivity to the rhythms of Nature, the sign itself will be subject to a rhythm: it’s conceived for a time span of ten years.

SYMBOLISM

       In many creation myths, water and earth symbolize the primordial beginning of all life. As symbols of fertility and human creative energy, they epitomize all natural phenomena. The Watersign is a symbol of motion, renewal and transformation.

       The spiral ornament is found in artifacts from the most widely varied prehistoric and early historical cultures. Today, it plays an increas-ingly important role in astrophysics, geology, climatic research and the arts.

       The Watersign is built from the ancient symbol of the spiral, which flows outwards into rhythmically serpentine furrows. The infinite motion of the sign alludes to the cosmological cycle of water.

CONSTRUCTION DESCRIPTION

       After pushing aside a 10 to 15 centimeter deep layer of humus, the underlying layer of small-grain to medium-grain gravel will be dug out and deposited alongside. When heaped in long walls alongside the furrows, the approximately 40,000 cubic meters of gravel excavated from the 1.5-meter-deep furrows will form a levee with a corresponding height of 1.5 meters. The angle formed by the intersection of the water’s surface and the levee’s slope will measure approximately 25 degrees. Groundwater will flow into and partly fill the furrow. The field surrounding the Watersign can be planted with various crops and will be cultivated by a farmer.

       The planning phase for the Watersign has been completed. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2001.

DIMENSIONS

Property = 400 x 260 m: Watersign = 290 x160 m;

long axis = east-west; distance from flight corridor = circa 800 m.