Earthtime 1.26 Munich, Germany, 2021
"I'm excited to install Earthtime 1.26 Munich in the historic Odeonsplatz, where past and present intertwine to create a dynamic urban now. My artwork reflects an interconnectedness of opposites - flexibility with strength, earth with sky, things we can control with the forces beyond us. I invite viewers to pause beneath my sculpture for a moment to contemplate our interconnectedness with each other and our planet, and to become aware of our own sensory experience." - Janet Echelman
Description
Between August 11th and October 3rd, 2021, Janet Echelman’s Earthtime 1.26 sculpture was exhibited at Munich’s Odeonsplatz, presented by Mercedes-Benz.
The Earthtime sculpture series seeks to heighten our awareness about the way we are all interconnected with one another and our planet.
These sculptures serve as symbols of interconnectedness - composed of countless intertwined fibers. Each time a single knot moves in the wind, the location of every other knot in the sculpture’s surface is changed in an ever unfolding dance of human-made creation with the forces of nature beyond our control.
To create the sculptural form, Echelman works with teams both inside and outside her studio. These include architects, designers, and model-makers in the studio, as well as an external team of aeronautical and structural engineers, computer scientists, lighting designers, landscape architects, and a fabrication team.
Inside Echelman’s studio, the physical form of Earthtime 1.26 was digitally modeled with inspiration from a scientific data set describing a single geological occurrence in one part of the world (a 2010 earthquake in Chile) that caused ripple effects around the globe, which sped up the earth's daily rotation. The number in the title refers to a measurement of time, as the earth’s day was shortened by 1.26 microseconds.
To date, the Earthtime 1.26 sculpture has been installed in 15 cities on 4 continents: Denver, Colorado (2010), Sydney, Australia (2011), Amsterdam, Netherlands (2013), Singapore (2014), Montreal, Canada (2015, 2016, 2017), Prague, Czech Republic (2015), Durham, UK (2015), Santiago, Chile (2016), Shanghai, China (2017), Chiayi, Taiwan (2018), Hong Kong, China (2018), Geneva, Switzerland (2020), Munich, Germany (2021), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2021), and Milan, Italy (2022).
Sculpture by the Numbers:
361,728 knots
38 miles twine in netting
130 mph design wind load
700 lbs weight of net and ropes
18 tons force at anchor supports
1,370 ft length of rope structure
113 ft length of net
52 ft highest point
3,395 sf area of net in plan
MATERIALS AND SIZE
Fiber, Buildings and Sky combined with Colored Lighting. Fibers are braided with nylon and UHMWPE (Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene)
Dimensions of net: 79’ length x 68’ width x 18’ depth
Installation Dimensions: 113’ length x 68’ width x 52’ height
credits
Artist: Janet Echelman
Studio Echelman Team: Melissa Henry, Daniel Smith, Adam Burke
Sculpture Design Engineer: SOM San Francisco: Alessandro Beghini, Nicole Wang
Client: Mercedes-Benz AG
Lighting: TLD Lighting
Local Engineer: formTL
Photography: Alexandra Gollin, Antonia Eisert, Jan Saurer, Alkan Yilmaz, Roser Brothers
location
Odeonsplatz, Munich, Germany
PRESS
