Automatic Trains of Thought – Desk

Some of Kristek’s artworks were born out of life. In 1975, during one of the frequent artists’ meetings at Kristek’s Landsberg dwelling, a debate on the discussed ‘abortion law’ flared up. Based on the photographs, it was Wolf Hildebrandt HIL (representative of the Bauhaus movement in Dessau), Josef ‘Sepp’ Kober, Dietmar Scharfe, Egon Stöckle and Erich Zettl who were present. Kristek began to automatically draw a picture imprint of the conversation imbued with emotions on his kitchen table. The artists started leaving as morning approached. Then, HIL smiled at Kristek and said: ‘Well then, now you’ve lost your desk.’ From that moment on, the table became an exhibit named Automatic Trains of Thought – Desk. The artist cut out the drawing and hung it above one of the chairs. He sealed the newly emerged aperture with glass under which he placed his medicaments in a drawer (the desk thus became an exhibit with a medicine chest). The chairs are woven with barbed wire. That one may symbolize the difficult path to freedom but also the omnipresent thorns. Objects of daily use, too – bread, knife, pork fat, bottle, glass – are all wired up. They are within reach, and yet still inaccessible. The bread and fat are cured so that they changed their state very slowly. The process of change is part of the idea. Above the chair hangs a crown of thorns. It is not clear wheather the person it belongs to is still present. The artwork participated in Kristek’s happening Space of Soul in 1992.