Light and sound installation 2003
Besucherbergwerk (Mine Museum) F 60,
Lichterfeld-Schacksdorf (DE)
Optical fibers, spotlights, colored disks, mpeg player, amplifier, loudspeakers
Dimensions: 2 x 500 m x 45 m

The excavation conveyor gantry F 60 was East Germany’s last major construction project. Praised as the largest movable tool in the world, it was completed in 1990 and went into trial runs immediately. But since the lignite coal could no longer be sold, the mine and with it the F 60 were shut down in the following year. The people of the community of Lichterfeld-Schacksdorf fought for years to keep the
500-meter gantry in place and prevailed against strong resistance. The light and sound installation, created on commission from the International Construction Exhibition Fürst-Pückler-Land, was inaugurated in 2003. A cross-hatching of light traces the contours of the gantry in the nocturnal sky, and a sound composition plays through twelve loudspeakers mounted on the lower belt. This creates an atmosphere corresponding to this gigantic machine.