Rahmen

The Project

A once famous wine estate in the south west of France is to regain its former glory. This transformation will be depicted by the internationally acclaimed artist, Rainer Junghanns,
from Düsseldorf, who will document five years of change on the label of a limited edition wine.
This is an unusually dramatic project but one which really does show that "four ends form a circle".
It is a story of transformation, Zeitgeist and art, of wine, knowledge and sensory experiences.

Each year Rainer Junghanns will paint a cross on just 144 magnum bottles as a symbol for all four compass points, for north, east, south and west, for morning, afternoon, evening and night. Time will be tangible and the transformation process obvious. And finally a circle drawn around the cross will be a sign of togetherness and protection, a symbol of this unique project which has brought something into being.

Wine and art or art and wine have long belonged together. Wine is the oldest drink in cultural history and for Junghanns the growing, tending and vinifying of grapes is a transformation process. For him "art is the medium for coming together and for change".

The five steps to achievement:

Each year the artist, using a fine brush, will paint a white cross on the bottles. In these media and communication-led times, this cross is to be understood as the symbol of a crossroads, an interface. In the top left hand section the top left hand quarter of a digital photo will be positioned, taken by Junghanns on the 15th September 2002 at the La Chapelle de Saint Dominique wine estate. Over the next four years the artist will take the same picture at the same time and in the same place and add the photos to the relevant places in the cross. It will not be until 2006 that Rainer Junghanns completes the whole picture on the bottles and paints a circle around them. Only then will the transformation process be finished and the winery will be returned to its former glory.

And five magnum bottles, each a hand-painted original, pay tribute to this extraordinary joint project.
The Four Ends of a Circle

back:2002

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