DER ERSTE SCHRITT
"The first step promises direction —
but certainty remains absent."
DER ERSTE SCHRITT (THE FIRST STEP) is a sculpture about beginning — not arrival. It speaks of the moment when hope outweighs experience.
A fragile white step rises from the space. It appears light, almost provisional, yet already marked. The first step seems possible — but what lies beyond remains unclear. The invitation is visible. The outcome is not.
At eye level, a sign confronts the viewer. It does not command, yet it unsettles. Its words feel less like prohibition and more like an inner voice — ambiguous, provocative, unresolved. The threshold becomes psychological as much as physical.
The vertical structure suggests staircases, shafts, layered planes — architecture as metaphor for systems, expectations, and inner constructions. Each step implies ascent, but no destination is revealed.
At the top sits a small figure. Reduced, silent, neither victor nor victim. It has almost arrived — but without certainty. The path lies behind it, yet no final state is confirmed.
Only from the back does this sculpture reveal another layer: neon colors, distorted faces, eyes, overlapping bodies. Chaos instead of order. The life that unfolds while one believes to control the first step.
DER ERSTE SCHRITT is part of the upcoming exhibition BETROGENER TRAUM and belongs to AREA 02 — Shock.
Photography © Alex Wendler