This Berlin Based Art Studio Has Created New Life On Bland Walls Planning is great, and sometimes it’s necessary in life, but there is a raw and unique in art created in spontaneity. When Berlin based collaborative studio, Borgman Lenk, were invited to create a series of sculptures at the EAL LilleBaelt Academy they let the space dictate the structures. Danish artist, Anna Borgman, and Geman designer, Candy Lenk, the founders of the studio, created a series of tiled structures that reinvented the space and added to texture to it’s stark white walls. As if pixels spreading out over the sides of the academy’s walls and girders. This modern looking effect ties into the contemporary feel of the building – large glass panes, smooth grey concrete floors and clean, square spaces are livened up by the various structures. Once the artist is done creating, the art takes on a life of it’s own. It adopts different meanings and has varying effects on those who view it. Borgman and Lenk’s pieces certainly take on a life of their own – they seem to crawl out over the world – alluding to constant expansion. We spoke to the two women behind the collaborative agency about what Mos means and how the structures add another level to the building they inhabit. TP: What inspired Mos? Anna Borgman & Candy Lenk: In our practice, we have specialized in site-specific sculptures and installations which interact with the space around them. The same applies here. MOS is a reaction on the location and a result of our ‘reading’ of the space. TP: Talk us through the meaning of ‘Mos’. AB & CL: We wanted to create an art piece, which should nest in the building and is inseparably connected to the place. The tiles are typical in buildings and not foreign in architecture. But the tiles of MOS act in a different and unusual way. The title MOS (moss) refers to that behavior of the tiles. Though they consist of a geometrical grid, they grow out of the building with their irregular shapes. TP: How did you determine where to build the installations in the building? AB & CL: We thought it is interesting to discover the individual parts of the work. We placed the groups of objects in a way that you can’t see all at once. TP: What was the creative process for designing each object? AB & CL: The designing process is a mixture of sketching on paper, drawing 3d computer models and work with material samples simultaneously. TP: Can you sum up Mos in three words? AB & CL: Tiles, tiles, tiles. TP: How do you feel the tile structures changes the feeling of the space? AB & CL: More than changing, the artwork is adding another artistic level in a formal and conceptual way. The unusual way the tiles are arranged in the architectural space leads to a reflection about meaning or a story behind. In this way we defined normal tiles as a piece of art. TP: What are you working on? AB & CL: We just finished KLÆDE the second part of the installations for the academy in Odense. An 80 sq. m. large folded grid made of steel bars in the entrance hall. Now we‘re working on several projects. One of them is the photo series of the sculpture WURF (Throw). A 2 m high piece made of paper maché and wood that mimics a heavy stone. We place it in various locations. The possibilities of interpretation of the sculpture change depending on the context. Another upcoming project is a light installation on top of a new Building for the United Nations in Bonn, Germany.
