Coin of the Solar Eclipse (Sonnenfinsternismünze)
Object / Potential carrier from the series Stand der Materie
1-cent coin, decoded on a rail track during the solar eclipse on 20 March 2015 with the help of a passing tram
Object diameter: 2.8 cm, mounted in frame, 14.5 × 19.5 cm (variable)
Edition of 2
The work brings together an uncontrollable event — the movement of celestial bodies — and a deliberate human act. During the solar eclipse, a 1-cent coin was placed on a rail track and transformed by a passing tram. In this way, a specific moment within a larger natural and cosmic condition was marked and stored in an object.
The work points to the fact that the Earth, human civilisation, and everyday life exist within a greater situation and position determined by forces beyond direct control, to which one can only react. At the same time, it introduces an act of free choice: the deletion of the information that had constituted the object’s previous function and value.
Through this transformation, the coin is removed from its original role and redefined through conceptualisation. What emerges is both a marker of existence in time and space and a potential carrier: an object in which potential and value are shifted, condensed, and stored for possible future application.