Dem Fisch das Wasser zu erklären

In his installation Dem Fisch das Wasser zu erklären (engl. Explaining Water to the Fish), Johannes Hoffmann makes an art historical reference to one of the most famous works by the Cologne artist Hans Haacke. At a time where in Marl the town hall was being built, Haacke developed in 1963 the Condensation Cube - a transparent cube that shows a natural condensation process in the exhibition space and thus makes a real-time system tangible for the first time. In Marl, Hoffmann's scaled-down replica of Haacke's acrylic glass cube is placed in a larger, also transparent cube that is climatically regulated, alongside a water channel on the window sill, which sets its own evaporating processes in motion in the exhibition space. Hoffmann thus translates the self-contained yet transparent system of the original into a new air-conditioned interior space - an ecosystem within an ecosystem? In this way, Dem Fisch das Wasser zu erklären impressively questions the promise of eternity, which is always expected from architecture and art, but always requires constant (collective) care.

from the exhibition text of »Es gibt keine Maikäfer mehr«
Skulpturenmuseum Marl