Ursula Neugebauer
Tour en l'air
1998
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: Joe Miletzki
- Artist / Artist group
- Ursula Neugebauer
- Title
- Tour en l'air
- Year
- 1998
- Category
- Installation
- Material / Technique
- 7 red taffeta dresses, modificated decorative busts, digital controlled (PLC) electric motors
- Dimensions / Duration
- 280 x 700 x 1100 cm
- Collection
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
- Description
- The artist Ursula Neugebauer studied fine arts at the Münster Academy of Fine Arts from 1981 to 1991, during which time she was chosen by Timm Ulrichs to be his master student. Since 2003, she has been teaching as a professor of fine arts at the Berlin University of the Arts. Her work “Tour en l’air” bears a nominal resemblance to a dance move from classical ballet. In this ballet jump—which, in contrast to her work, is typically performed by men—the dancers complete one to three rotations in the air before landing (again) on the floor. Ursula Neugebauer adapts this weightless, graceful movement for her spatial installation. The work consists of seven decorative busts suspended from the ceiling by electric motors and clothed in red taffeta dresses. The dresses, each slightly over a meter long, begin one after another to rotate around their own axis at a predetermined interval. This is achieved by motors whose movements have been programmed by a computer. The movement begins at a moderate pace and then gradually accelerates, so that within a few seconds the skirt is pulled up toward the bust by the rotations. Only when the dress has reached its maximum movement does another motor start up, allowing the next dress to join the dance.After all the dresses have spun up into the air, there is a sudden halt a moment later, and the skirts slowly float back down to the ground. There, the kinetic installation comes to a rest for a while before the first dress begins to spin once more. With her work, Ursula Neugebauer succeeds in transforming lifeless materials into a living dance. Her play with gravity invites viewers to lose themselves in reverie and let the boundaries of reality blur.
Author
Lara
Mainzer
Images
Ursula Neugebauer, »Tour en l'air« [AIR TOUR], 1998, 7 red taffeta dresses, decorative busts, computer-controlled electric motors, 280 x 700 x 1100 cm, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: Joe Miletzki
Ursula Neugebauer, »Tour en l'air« [AIR TOUR], 1998, 7 red taffeta dresses, decorative busts, computer-controlled electric motors, 280 x 700 x 1100 cm, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: Joe Miletzki
Ursula Neugebauer, »Tour en l'air« [AIR TOUR], 1998, 7 red taffeta dresses, decorative busts, computer-controlled electric motors, 280 x 700 x 1100 cm, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: Joe Miletzki
Ursula Neugebauer, »Tour en l'air« [AIR TOUR], 1998, 7 red taffeta dresses, decorative busts, computer-controlled electric motors, 280 x 700 x 1100 cm, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: Joe Miletzki
Ursula Neugebauer, »Tour en l'air« [AIR TOUR], 1998, 7 red taffeta dresses, decorative busts, computer-controlled electric motors, 280 x 700 x 1100 cm, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: Joe Miletzki
