Miniaturbiennale II – Colliding Worlds
Hauptbahnhof, Frankfurt am Main DE

A single high-rise building towers above the picturesque miniature town. With its central location and the promise of a good view, the "Faller Tower" embodies a conceivable counterpart to high-priced investment penthouses in metropolitan regions. In the currently scarce real estate market, the question of living space and architectural stock only occasionally leads to thinking upwards. For her series Plinth (2021), Shirin Sabahi invited artists to imagine roof superstructures for meticulously crafted building-like plinths and to sculpturally raise the neutral models. Penrose Steps is Sabahi’s own artistic reaction to the trends of urban development and negotiates the complex relationship between above and below. Free from economic thinking, the impossible figure sits on the roof of the building like a hat. Based on the ideas of the British mathematician Penrose, the sculptural intervention moves between architecture and distortion of perception. As a three-dimensional staircase that runs back into itself, it creates the optical illusion of infinity and is at the same time physically unconquerable.

Work

Penrose Steps
2024. Cardboard, graphite, color pencil, Scotch tape, 8 x 8 x 12 cm