The Moss-grown Phone Call (1978–1982) by Lubo KristekResearch Institute of Communication in Art
"The Moss-grown Phone Call"
During the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, Kristek often directed his attention to the developing world of technology and the gradual disappearance of personal communication.
It was also at this time that he first organised the now legendary Kristek’s Night Vernissages in Landsberg am Lech, Germany.
Sculptors, painters, poets, musicians, philosophers and the public gathered at these exhibitions held for only one night in his studio and neighbouring garden. In this environment that was the “hot spring” of communication, Kristek’s happenings later crystallised.
The world in the painting The Moss-grown Phone Call (1978–82) is connected by the ever-present wires that disappear into infinity.
The nearest pole depicts the Crucifixion surrounded by the waste of modern civilisation.
The phone is disconnected.
For a long time already the handset hasn’t been working and is being overrun by nature.
To the side is the route of the ancestors. It starts with a camel (the symbol of ancient deities), leads past the Ionic column and bust of Queen Nefertiti toward the armour and the crown jewels.
According to Kristek, communication already died out in the middle ages.
