HAUS-RUCKER-CO with ORTNER & ORTNER // Half room and dust images — For 26 years the “Halbraum” (Half Space) lay rolled up and packaged at the bottom of the storeroom. A three-and-a-half metre long cardboard tube that nobody wanted to or could open. The image inside it measures 340x630 cm. Half a rectangular space with thin walls made of rods, which is framed by two solidly constructed corners with ways through in each wall. Two cut spaces, the solid outer one determined only by its corners, and the fragile inner one of yellowish wood or gold-coloured metal. Today, for us the most interesting aspect of this work is not the original theme of breaking up a house into its definitive arts and a possible redefinition of these parts. We are interested in the picture: the technique using layers of pastels and its ability to convey a view that penetrates through outer shells into deeper layers. Our “painting with thick dust” continues with greater density what was started with the “Halbraum” and the Blaue Scheibe (Blue Panel). Buildings by us, some erected others not, are now depicted in dust pictures measuring 150x230 cm. The intention is that these pictures of buildings should have the ability of well-painted portraits to offer a view of what is essential – differently to photographs – and, in the best possible cases, should make fine internal flows of energy tangible. Shown on the 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice "Common Ground" Director: David Chipperfiled, from 29th August - 25th November 2012