fw5
Manfred Pernice
2025
Ceramic tile, wood, cement
Ca. 23 x 23 x 2 cm
Edition of 12 copies (all unique) numbered and signed by the artist
This edition, as well as the installation in the keijiban, were conceived in correspondence with a project by Manfred Pernice for the new buildings of a fire station in Munich. The work took the form of a large, geometric and colorful fresco of tile-looking enamel metal sheets occupying an entire section of the façade, as well as corresponding tile-inserts in a concrete benchlike structure (Peilanlage >ascona<). This public art piece thus finds a distant echo, on the other side of the planet, in a context that is both public (the keijiban display) and domestic (the edition). The geometric and colorful patterns deployed here and there, while giving the appearance of a universal vocabulary, are still subject to different interpretations in different cultural situations. Just as patterns move from one surface to another, from one material to another, meanings are constantly shifting. Moreover, the fw5 edition is conceived as an object that can either be hung on the wall in any orientation, or used as a trivet, taking on an unexpected functionality. It is this kind of displacement of form and use, this defamiliarization of everyday objects, that has always been at the heart of the artist's practice.
Manfred Pernice's exhibition took place at Keijiban from May 15 to June 14, 2025.