Text des Kurators der Fundament Foundation Chris Driessen zur Präsentation.

Even though the body of work of Florian Froese-Peeck (Munich, 1975, lives and works in Munich) is characterized by the use of diverse media, this work is beyond doubt rooted in a sculptural tradition. Froese-Peeck is above all a contemporary sculptor, who, whith physical matter, light, photography and video, creates probing images, either of a remarkable simplicity or of a rather complex structure, but always urban, which directly appeal to the imagination without revealing their meaning(s) straight away.

Elaborating on a recent work, Von der Wahrheit (On Truth), a photographic triptych, in which the artists develops an intimate nocturnal relationship with a street lamp, by first using it as his private shelter, then removing it from the street to install it on his private grounds for use as a huge reading lamp, the artist proposes for Pieter Vreedeplein a rather classical sculpture, a giant tree, the branches of which end in streetlamps. Street lighting is one of the most important achievements of modern times, and of great importance for the flaneur who explores the urban surroundings in nocturnal wanderings, but of course also for nocturnal traffic in general, a potent expression of civilization itself..

Whereas the lighttree itself is an example of almost classical sculpture, Froese-Peeck extends his proposal with a wooden jetty across the square, which transforms the classical character in an almost obstructing object. The form of the jetty refers to the infrastructure of the streets surrounding the square.

Froese-Peecks, who shows prints of a first physical elaboration of the lighttree, three meters high, as well as a panoramic view of how the actual realised work will look like, including a scale model of the jetty with the light tree as its centre, refers with this work to the ancient idea of the agora, the central square where a community gathers to be seen and heard. In many cases a live tree is the centre of such an agora. Froese-Peeck translates an old tradition into a contemporary form and incorporates its necessary social functions, which transform an empty space into an energetic square. (Chris Driessen - Curator Fundament Foundation)