Stommeln Synagoge

After a few minutes, the viewer’s eyes adjusted to the brightness, and the brick structure of a small synagogue began to take form. Light poured through its arched glass windows, and if the visitor was curious enough to peer inside, he saw metal scaffolding, on which numerous high-powered light projectors were perched - the source of the blinding illumination. The installation, though, is meant to be viewed from the outside, as a space that is transformed by the radiance emanating from within.

Mischa Kuball’s REFRACTION HOUSE is the fourth and most impressive in a series o site-specific installations in this deconsecrated synagogue. Like this earlier light installations, Kuball’s transformation of the synagogue in Stommeln is an experiment exploring how buildings use space. The bodiless quality of light enables him to create "sculptures" whose structures are weightless.

Gerard A. Goodrow

Catalogues:
Zweite, Armin, Gerhard Dornseifer: ’refraction house’, Mischa Kuball, Synagoge Stommeln, Kulturamt Pulheim 1994
Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne.
ISBN: 3-88375-199-5

Stadt Pulheim - Gerhard Dornseifer, Angelika Schallenberg ’Art Projects - Synagoge Stommeln - Kunstprojekte’, Kulturamt Pulheim 2000
Verlag Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000
ISBN: 3-7757-0999-1