“Modell Osthaus” is a digitally produced image carpet that covers the entire floor of the exhibition hall of the Karl Ernst Osthaus museum in Hagen, Germany. The theme of the carpet uses elements that are typical of classical carpets: border, back, image center, colors. The integration of stylized architectural views – for example the floor plan of sacral buildings – is a further characteristic of traditional carpets. However, in contrast to the ornamentally fashioned traditional motives, the image motive now consists of a montage of photographs of the museum’s architecture. These photos have been reprocessed on the computer and depict exposed views of the hall in varying sizes and perspectives. The center shows an exemplary bird’s eye view of the hall, whose walls seem to have been folded outwards as in a handicraft sheet. This center, in turn, is surrounded by a convoluted constellation of further image fragments of the room.
The architecture of the Osthaus-Museum enables the visitor to view the carpet on the floor of the museum in various ways. After having entered the museum, the visitor finds himself directly on the carpet. When he continues the tour of the museum and enters the next floor and the gallery via the stairs, the carpet presents itself from many different perspectives and angles.
Model Osthaus
