Zeus Playing

2007

Material / Technique: Suspended aluminum frame, five hundred hanging steel bars, transformers, wood

Description: "But man designs, and Zeus completes it differently!" [1] (Homer)
A forest of five hundred hanging steel rods - if you approach »Zeus Playing«, the interactive installation by the Italian artist Antonio Barrese, nothing happens for the time being. Only when the visitors follow the unspoken request to interact with the artwork its full effect unfold. Because at first glance it is not obvious that the filigree rods, which hang down from a seemingly floating aluminum structure, are under electric current. If one is brave enough to step between the metal rods, a game of dancing sparks is set in motion. The movement of the visitors and the resulting clashing of the metal create short circuits that are electrically discharged along the bars. This process takes place via transformers located at the top of the suspension and becomes visible to the human eye in the form of sparks.
A spark-like thunderstorm of lightning arises around the viewer in the middle of the installation, so that they create an energetic play of light like Zeus, the father of the gods of Greek antiquity armed with lightning and thunder.

[1] Homer, Iliad, (Düsseldorf: Artemis & Winkler, 1996), p. 326

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