Glass, wood, metal, electronic circuit by Walter Goettmann, Berlin
“Looking into the heart of light, the silence…” — T. S. Eliot
“Un ange passe” - this French expression is taken from the idea that a lull in a conversation occurs when an angel passes by. Silence has become rare in present society, haunted as it is by horror vacui.
The lamp inside the transparent dome only lights up when it is able to detect total silence in its vicinity.
The Angel Detector becomes a sort of lighthouse inviting a passing angel to rest for a moment.
A (silent) dialogue with the angel that has been thus attracted can begin.
Jakob Gautel and Jason Karaïndros
There are three different versions of the Angel Detector :
Portable version
Height 11 cm, diametre 5 cm, edition of 60 + 10 numbered and signed pieces.
The so-called “table version”
Height 30 cm, diametre 16 cm, edition of 8 pieces.
Collection du Fonds National d’Art Contemporain and collection Bruno Hoang, Paris.
→ CNAP collection, Fonds National d’Art Contemporain
Proposition for a public space, not produced
“Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” — translation Charles Kay Ogden
On the occasion of his micro-exhibition Concert Spaziale at Eriko Momotani’s place in Paris in 2003, Alexandros Markeas created a composition for piano and Angel Detector.
Some examples of contexts in which the Angel Detector has been shown :
• Un printemps d’artistes, 1st multimedia biennial, Metz, 1996,
• Engel-Engel Kunsthalle Vienna, curator Dr. Cathrin Pichler, 1997 ; exhibition shown in 1997/1998 at the contemporary art centre Galerie Rudolfinum Prague,
• Triennale d’Art Contemporain, Yokohama, Japon, curator Tadashi Kawamata, 2005 (double portrait Triennale de Yokohama © Anzaï),
• In-Built , Byzantine Museum, Athens, Greece, 2007,
• TILT - Le temps suspendu, œuvres du Centre national des arts plastiques, Château Saint-Jean, Nogent-le-Rotrou, 2009,
• Mobile immobile, Picardie Museum, Amiens, curators Sabine Cazenave and Pamela Sticht, 2012,
• Les anges de Klee - et des anges de ..., Paul Klee Centre, Bern, Switzerland, 2012,
• Je hais les couples II - curated by Jeanne Susplugas and Alain Declerq, gallery Valerie Bach, Brussels, 2013,
• chapelle Sainte-Anne, Tours, as part of the programme Newtopia 4.2 / La perle, at the invitation of Omnivion, and with a performance by Dimitri Tsiapkinis (dance) and Soïzic Lebrat (cello) in December 2016,
• Day of Silence at the Chaillot National Theatre, February 25, 2017 (photos J.G. and Vincent Zucca),
• at the Bauhaus Dessau (photo Nicolas Karmochkine), Summer 2017,
• Trial of Fiction at the Paris town hall, A people is Missing, Nuit Blanche 2017,
• at the 7th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art invited by Areti Leopoulou, 2019.
• and at the gray&gray gallery, Karlsruhe, 2021/2022, at the invitation of Clemens Köhler.
