Temporarily Not Available | Island of Foam - Version XXIII

After stops in Paris, London, and Dresden, the artist Stephanie Lüning (b. 1978 in Schwerin) is creating a foam event in Essen-Steele – at the opening weekend of Ruhr Ding: Schlaf – as an unforgettable, stunning experience. Giant, colourful hills of foam are channelled into downtown Steele, transforming the familiar surroundings into a dreamlike landscape in a light, playful way, before disappearing from urban space again without any lasting traces. The artist uses a self-built machine made of gardening implements with an integrated colour mixing desk to produce the ephemeral foam creations from biodegradable dishwashing liquid and food colouring, which are temporarily flooding squares, bridges, and objects.

In downtown Steele, the artist has moreover positioned the installation Temporarily not Available: a derelict yellow telephone booth is foaming from the inside. Powered by photovoltaic cells on the roof, the foam generator operates in direct correlation with the rhythm of daylight and also the current weather conditions. Hence, the stationary telephone booth, as an inoperative and anachronistic medium of communication, becomes an unusual measuring station in the urban landscape.

With her process-oriented working approach, Stephanie Lüning employs a diverse range of materials, tests aggregate states, and at the same time probes the boundaries of painting as a genre.