Selma Gültoprak

Table boards, ironwall of a pool, sand, building waste, pedestals, wood, 1200 x 700 x 100 cm / platformed ZONTA COLOGNE AWARD 2014

platformed consists of ca. 140 table tops that have been raised to a hight of 1 meter. Within this surface of accessible boards there lies a large hole which has been partially filled with building rubble.
The table is a place of communication and coming together. Likewise the term platform is commonly used as a place of exchange of ideas.
The individual table tops form a new level and a common ground. The singular table tops melt together to form a mosaic entity. Furthermore, the right-angled table tops seem to have formed territories with unnatural boundary lines, as if someone had drawn lines through a landscape. The heightening within the room, the joint platform and the coming together are but temporary; they last only as long as the exhibition itself. (Like tectonic plates, this formation will keep redesigning itself.)
The tables were purchased on Ebay, collected from bulky waste skips or donated by social facilities. They are all second-hand furniture and are in a used state. It is only when you walk across the surface that the boards start to stir: the creaking, the memories and the surface sensibility.