Florian Claar

2001 / 2006

Mixed Media ,Wood, Video-projectors 

Artium, Fukuoka / Japan

Weißfeld Gallery, Tokyo / Japan

In his novel Stanislaw Lem describes Solaris as an inaccessible planet on which the laws of nature don’t apply. Completely covered by an ocean of living matter like a gigantic brain, it scans the memory of anyone in it’s orbit and creates a reality for them, based on their own imagination. This reality is always changing. There is a constant dialog between reality and fictional elements created by the planet. The installation “Solaris” at Artium in Fukuoka consists of 6 chambers through which visitors can wander and experience a personal and non-verbal narrative. While Lem’s novel is the starting-point, the installation does not show particular elements from the book, but rather puts ones own mind in the reality of Solaris to see what happens. A non-linear story involving all senses of the visitor, an actual experience, rather than a simulation. Form, light, temperature and sounds interact with the visitors own memory and create the basis for a story that evolves with a similar logic as within a dream.