CUBE CADIZ – 2006

Gregor Schneider’s work is based on the manipulation of architectural space. By using installations and sculptures, the artist bases his artistic creation on the conception of a precise place, which exceeds the visible and invisible, where perception and duplication of space confronts the passing of time and the disappearance of the environment.

Gregor Schneider’s project represents the duplicity of public and private space as a way of generating ties with its surroundings and with the unknown.  Like his earlier Cube project (designed for the Piazza San Marco in Venice, and which could not be finished, for political reasons, during the 2005 Venice Biennale), this project can be seen to have ties to the image of the Kaaba in Mecca.  In this case, the project titled Cube Cádiz, is located on a height overlooking one of the most typical Andalusian ‘white villages’, Vejer de la Frontera, whose whitewashed architecture dominates the landscape, and from which one can see where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic meet—as well as the encounter between Africa and Europe.  With Cube Cádiz, Gregor Schneider gives new life to the Venice Cube project, creating a structure with similar dimensions to the Kaaba, but this time it is white, the colour of tolerance, peace, and dialogue, prevailing over an international scenario in which dialogue, respect, and understanding are lacking.