site specific work
Created for Manifesta 16 Ruhr. Collection of Hochschule der bildenden Künste Essen
foil, polycarbonate tube, light tube
site-specific intervention in St. Gertrud, Essen
Manifesta 16, Ruhr region, Germany
Fever (2025) is a site-specific intervention on a tall, narrow stained-glass window in St. Gertrude Church, Essen. The proportions and the modernist glass decoration from the 1950s, with elements resembling degree markings, led me to imagine a giant thermometer. An object from everyday life, it marks a fragile threshold — between health and illness, control and loss while also carrying references to art history - from Duchamp through Jasper Johns and Fluxus artists to the present.
A temperature of 37.6 degrees indicates a moderate fever: it may worsen, but it may also support the organism’s recovery. It is up to us to define what the “organism” is, and what its cure might be.
If something is no longer itself, it could be anything.
Pravdoliub Ivanov
2026