Skulpturenpark Köln

A helicopter has landed on the roof of the main building of the Stiftung Skulpturenpark Köln. Where has the helicopter come from? What is its destination and who is aboard? Hoher Besuch - Köln (High-Ranking Visit - Cologne) is the title of the sculpture by Michael Sailstorfer (* 1979), a French SE 3160 Alouette 111, with a white outerskin and painted black windows, whose engine has been replaced by a silent electric motor. For special occasions the helicopter's rotor can be activated and rotates almost noiselessly, as if in a vacuum. The intentional absence of the usual mechanical noises is aimed at forging an atmosphere, which is both filmic and reminiscent of silent flashbacks or dreams. It alienates the observer by evoking an "elsewhere", which paradoxically is clearly located in present. As with many of the works by Michael Sailstorfer, Hoher Besuch is in a state of indeterminacy. The sculpture exploits the elemental feeling of insecurity underpinning so many of life's so-called significant events, and directs our focus at the flowing, permanent transition to which all things are irrevocably subject.