Wolfgang Laib | "A Wax Room for a Mountain", 1994 | (for Parkett 39)
Read a Parkett text on Wolfgang Laib
Parkett Vol. 39
Quote from Parkett
“For Wolfgang Laib, the pollen, like the milk, beeswax, rice, and marble, is a material with properties that extend beyond his individual powers of invention; and he accepts this, playing the role of mediator rather than creator, combining organic materials that have invisible energies—perhaps even healing powers.”
Clare Farrow, Parkett No. 39, 1994
"A Wax Room for a Mountain", 1994
Silkscreen, oilstick on Rivoli SK2 240g,
19 1/2 x 16 1/8” (49,2 x 40,9 cm),
printed by Lorenz Boegli, Zurich,
Ed. 75/XL, signed and numbered
Read a Parkett text on Wolfgang Laib
Parkett Vol. 39
Quote from Parkett
“For Wolfgang Laib, the pollen, like the milk, beeswax, rice, and marble, is a material with properties that extend beyond his individual powers of invention; and he accepts this, playing the role of mediator rather than creator, combining organic materials that have invisible energies—perhaps even healing powers.”
Clare Farrow, Parkett No. 39, 1994
"A Wax Room for a Mountain", 1994
Silkscreen, oilstick on Rivoli SK2 240g,
19 1/2 x 16 1/8” (49,2 x 40,9 cm),
printed by Lorenz Boegli, Zurich,
Ed. 75/XL, signed and numbered
Read a Parkett text on Wolfgang Laib
Parkett Vol. 39
Quote from Parkett
“For Wolfgang Laib, the pollen, like the milk, beeswax, rice, and marble, is a material with properties that extend beyond his individual powers of invention; and he accepts this, playing the role of mediator rather than creator, combining organic materials that have invisible energies—perhaps even healing powers.”
Clare Farrow, Parkett No. 39, 1994
"A Wax Room for a Mountain", 1994
Silkscreen, oilstick on Rivoli SK2 240g,
19 1/2 x 16 1/8” (49,2 x 40,9 cm),
printed by Lorenz Boegli, Zurich,
Ed. 75/XL, signed and numbered
Artist Document
When Wolfgang Laib made "A Wax Room for a Mountain" his silkscreen with yellow oilstick for Parkett 39 in 1994, he was exploring possibilities to create a wax room in nature, in a mountain.
He had previously done several wax rooms in museums starting in 1988 for Harald Szeemann’s exhibition "Zeitlos" at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. Laib spent several years searching in the Pyrenees for a suitable place to install a Wax Room in the open. In 2001, seven years after his first study for his Parkett edition, he found the location he was looking for and built an actual outdoor Wax Room on the Roc del Maure near Marcevol in the French Pyrenees. The nearly four-metre long and three-metre high chamber was hewn into the rock and the beeswax was applied directly to the stone by hand. 'La Chambre des Certitudes/The Room of Certitudes' is accessible only after a one-hour walk up the mountainside and it offers a very intense experience of the work and a view over to the Massif du Canigou.
The following images show views of the actual wax room "the room of certitudes" in the French Pyrenee, and a text/poem on Wolfgang Laib and his work by Harold Szeemann.
Parkett Text
Read a selected text on Wolfgang Laib
Parkett Cover
Wolfgang Laib’s shared cover with Felix Gonzalez-Torres
