Pluto
2020
installation, Bismarckstraße Saarbrücken
wooden attic (approx. 50 sqm), video projection
with sound, feather, flashlight, red window filter
The video and sound installation Pluto was situated
in the attic of an 1898 mansion in Saarbrücken.
The projection showed a slow-motion recording of
a group of flamingos gathered around a waterhole,
filmed in a zoological garden. A layered soundscape
unfolded in the warm, wooden attic: the sounds of
bird calls intertwined with gentle splashes of water.
The space was filled with a deep red light filtering
through a roof hatch. An illuminated feather
shimmered in the darkness like a distant star in
the night sky. At the entrance, a chart presented
astronomical facts about the dwarf planet Pluto,
linking the warmth of the home to the coldness of
the universe, and the passage of time on Earth to
its unfolding in space.
The work reflected on the quiet resemblance between
the architecture of a bird’s nest, natural cradles, and
the structure of a human home.
Pluto grew out of a long-standing project involving
the photographing of zoological gardens. Through these observations, I explored the constructed environments
of these spaces—their architecture, their illusions, and
the lives they frame.
Discovery date: 18 Feb 1930
Age: 4,5 Mrd. Earth years
Distance from Earth: 106 km
Temperature: –238 to –218 °C
Moons: 5
Radius: 1188 km
Mean orbital speed: 4,72 km/s
Length of the day: ~153 hours
Length of a year: 247,68 Earth years
Laura Sperl 