An Te Liu


Being Disposed, 2007

Power Boxes RheinEnergie
, Unter Goldschmied / Kleine Budengasse, Am Hof, Mon–Sun 0:00 am – 12:00 pm

Urban utility boxes are the medium An Te Liu uses for his text-based interventions in their functional design. His quotations of succinct phrases taken from the philosophies of Martin Heidegger involve various themes: the relationship of function and dysfunction, the concept of “Zuhanden” and “Vorhanden” (“at hand for use” and “at hand, but not necessarily with a functional purpose”), the utility value of things, or the idea of dislocating location. In condensing theoretical analyses of reality down 
to concise terms, a plea is made for a level of discourse in the face of the empirical reality of every-day systems of function and regulation, by questioning the presuppositions of these systems. Placed on technical tools in passing, the abstract philosophical phrases, taken out of their usual context, are like intellectual disturbances of the public life 
in which they are embedded. 
Referring to their locations and yet alienated from them at the same time, they insist that viewers think about what appears to be simple givens.