Caput
Mur Brut 6, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 20 April to 12 June 2016

  • Caput, 2016
    Glazed ceramic, inkjet print, marker on mirror, soap
    Photos: Katja Illner

  • Caput, 2016
    Glazed ceramic, inkjet print, marker on mirror, soap

About the work

For Kunsthalle MUR BRUT, at regular intervals artists are invited to design a wall in the parking garage at Grabbeplatz 4. The multipart wall installation by Christine Moldrickx is reminiscent of a bathroom and opens up an element of intimacy in the space of the parking garage.

Caput means “head” in Latin. The sink on the wall is kaput, useless after the raw material was punctured by a head. Caput esse, literally “to be useless,” is derived from the Latin meaning “one must start everything over again,” or “take it by the head.” Caput as the “outermost point” of the body is a beginning and an end, a source and a mouth at the same time. In some cases, the shift from one to the other is as imperceptible as the shift from C to K in caput and kaput. We often only become aware of it when what is supposedly familiar to us appears unclear for a moment while water runs coldly over our hands.