Alona Rodeh
Slow Swan Social Club is a proposal for a new kinetic piece created especially for Lichtparcours Braunschweig 2024.
It takes its cue from commercial swan-shaped pedal boats still in use in the Oker today and from historical images of swans swimming in the Portikusteich, in front of the Portikus, a reconstructed ruin in the heart of Braunschweig’s Bürgerpark. The work is visually coherent with the park’s recreational purpose: it neither appears out of place nor immediately recognizable as an artwork.
Using two ready-made swan pedal boats, electric motors will replace the pedals, and the steering wheels will be fixed to the right, forcing the boats to move in circles. The work corresponds to the original idea of the Bürgerpark as a picturesque, idyllic spot for peaceful recreation and controlled consumption of (manmade) nature. It’s an automated love song, a contemporary nod to the romantic, nineteenth-century image of historical ruins and swan lake choreographies. The automated boats can be perceived as melancholic, forever drawing circles in the dark. Yet the work can also be read as a slapstick sculpture, full of humor, surprise, and playfulness.
Simulation: Siwei Cai, Rachid Moro
