Pro polis

Iris Haeussler    (1993)

Hotel installation:
Hotel Gritti***, Room No. 42, Milano, Italy

A hotel close to the Milano Dome. Room No. 42.

The walls, floor, windows, furnitures and amenities of the room were covered with a thick layer of white, industrial wax. It raised the floor by several centimeters and slowly deformed under the visitor's feet; it thinned out towards the ceiling, revealing in patches the pattern of the wallpaper; it removed the telephone, the refrigerator, the bed from their intended use. Daylight filtered faintly through the wax-covered window. The room appeared isolated from noise and sunshine. Its last inhabitant had left under obscure circumstances; perhaps a salesman in industrial materials, perhaps stranded in a foreign city, the space could be decoded but ambiguities remained unresolved.

Visitors obtained the key for the room at the reception, as if they were checking in.

The piece is a homage to Medardo Rosso.


Room No. 42

pro polis
Milano. Taxi to the Dome

pro polis
Hotel Gritti***. View from the window, before the intervention.

pro polis
Installation

pro polis
Covered picture, print: Titian, Venus Urbino

pro polis
Radiator

pro polis
Bed and floor