TROCKENLEITUNG MARstall

Trockenleitung_MARstall, 2022

Located at
Landesmuseum Mainz
Große Bleiche 49-51
55116 Mainz

cite-specific Installation
3,80 x 5,50 x 3,70 m

Installation with
16 laundry racks, household objects, toys and tools,
transport box, light elements & digital pigment prints on scaffolding


Pigment prints
kreuzung_6, 2018
150 x 100 cm | ed 3 + 2 AP
kreuzung_2, 2018
150 x 100 cm | ed 3 + 2 AP
ableitung_12, 2020
200 x 137 cm | ed 3 + 2 AP

Sponsored by
Ministerium für Familie, Frauen, Kultur und Integration in Rheinland-Pfalz, NEUSTART KULTUR, Leifheit AG




The in-situ installation is located in the Marstall of the Landesmuseum Mainz, which was once the stable of the electoral riding hall. Riders and horses were trained there for military purposes. Susanne Britz picks up on this connection by presenting a bright red toy horse hanging limply from the top scaffolding pole of the building scaffolding instead of the golden steed that adorns the museum’s entrance portal. In this way Britz combines elements of farce with grotesque elements.

Prints and installative elements are arranged in such a way that focal points are formed, inviting the viewer to walk around the overall installation like a sculpture.

The end of the installation, facing the back of the hall, is formed by sixteen towering clothes racks. By emphasizing the diagonal, which gives the impression of falling, they counterbalance the static construction of the scaffolding. On the side of the installation facing the Marstall wall are predominantly two-dimensional works, such as two large-format prints and small black-and-white photographs made into collages with needle and thread, which show parts of the Landesmuseum and underscore the processual nature of Britz’s work.
The large-format prints plotted on lightbox film take on a transparent character through backlighting, which refers to the creation of these works on the computer. Indeed Britz transforms. She transfers the installation to the surface through photography and makes it the starting point for a digital overdrawing on the computer. The idea of the continuation of lines through analog and digital, through planar as well as three-dimensional spaces, is a central idea in Britz’s work. Just as gestural as the drawn lines on the prints are the ropes and cables that snake through the scaffolding. What Britz presents here is the idea of a three-dimensional sketchbook that offers multi-perspective readings and invites the viewer to go in search of the lost needle in this haystack of meanings and strands.