Leandro Erlich: Pulled by the Roots

The key art work of »The City is the Star« presents the large-scale installation by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich. A huge construction crane bearing an unusual payload is positioned directly on Karlsruhe Marktplatz: an entire house hovers in midair on steal ropes! Inspired by one of architect Friedrich Weinbrenner’s historical structures, the building, together with its massive root system, quite literally appears to be ripped out of a row of neighboring houses.

With this work, Erlich – well-known throughout the world for his hyperreal sculptures and installations – explicitly addresses global themes, such as uprooting, migration, or simulation. By drawing on the crane in the context of construction measures in Karlsruhe inner city, he utilizes a key civil engineering tool, thereby adding a provocative element which, in the first instance, makes one think that the crane driver has made a mistake.