Material: Balloons, concrete fridge

The fridge represents a place of retreat for the archaic animals. Tortoises kept at home are familiar with fridges. They spend the winter there, in the vegetable cooler, immobile next to the cheese, lettuce and yogurt cartons.

A concrete replica is, for the tortoise, as much of a place of retreat as the cold appliance in the winter

I took my inspiration from a Bosch appliance dating from the 1950s, one with a typical door bulging outward. Lying on its back –that’s how the fridge sculpture is most often transported –it reminded me of a turtle right from the beginning. After all, objects often conjure up entirely new associations when turned on one side or flipped over. But then again maybe the association with tortoises comes from the grey-green color the concrete takes on when poured into very smooth formwork. In any case, for me the sculpture stands for isolation, a

hermetic separation between inside and outside, and also for wall, impenetrability, turtle shell, protection, refuge and retreat.

The concrete fridge was heaved out of the storeroom and then transported downhill onto a red poppy meadow. A small team of specialist builders replaced the professional art shipping agent. They sweated a great deal and cursed a little bit on the way but once the purposeless lump was standing in the middle of the flowers they laughed.