A Talking Flower Grows in Münster
A strange new flower cropped up in the small German city of Münster this summer. Not only did it bloom several meters high, but, after appearing in one of the city’s more frequented plazas, it began to address passers-by. Not every city can boast a talking flower, but this summer Münster is full of even more unusual discoveries. Every ten years the city hosts
Sculpture Projects Münster, an exhibition of art in public space with works by international artists at sites all throughout the city. This year 33 artists have made contributions that range from ephemeral sound installations, to performance sites, walking paths and imposing outdoor sculptures.
The work of artist
Marko Lehanka, the talking flower was specially cultivated for Münster. It has petals made of sawn-up surfboards and at the center is a large grey monitor that displays moving lines of text as the flower speaks. What does a talking flower say? Like most fairytale beings, the flower speaks in riddles. Although the sentence structure is familiar, people’s names and descriptions of familiar occurrences are combined within the odd context of an unfamiliar syntax: “It is 6:04 and 28 seconds and Joachim, nicknamed ‘Augenweide’, is eating dinner!”
The flower speaks with unusual logic: the not-quite-human thinking of a computerized brain. Lehanka developed the software for the talking flower’s “speech” himself and inputted the storytelling program with first and last names from the Münster phone book and weather information. Münster’s citizens thus become the protagonists of strange tales told in a halting male computer voice. Alongside the computer-generated nonsensical narrations and the flower’s ”Anything Goes” plotting, a certain black humor seems to emerge in the stories the flower tells. Neither plant, nor human, nor computer, the flower nevertheless seems to have quite a personality. Unlike many mythical creatures, the flower does not predict the future, and in the Münster stories all the protagonists die at the end of each story. Since flowers are short-lived creatures, this attitude is understandable. Lehanka’s flower too will be taken down at the end of the summer - unless Münster’s inhabitants grow fond of this homegrown blossom and its quirky humor.
Links:www.marko-lehanka.dewww.skulptur-projekte.de
