La voie d‘eau du café

Art & Graphic Design

GOAL
COMPETITION: Invest the facade of the Café Sati roasting plant located at the Rhine port on the border between Kehl and Strasbourg. The selected project will benefit an exceptional visibility in the public space.

CONCOURS: Investir la façade de l’usine de torréfaction Café Sati située dans le port du Rhin, à la frontière entre Kehl et Strasbourg.Le projet sélectionné sera produit et bénéficiera d’une visibilité exceptionnelle dans l’espace public.

TASK & IMPLEMENTATION
Finding a context and message to the space and the company. Creating an Art piece of 19.80 x 6.80 meters.

Concept, Product & Space: „La voie d‘eau du café“ combines journey and destination in a graphic picture.
At the center of the artwork is water as a constant and indispensable companion of coffee: from the irrigation of the plant in Costa Rica or Zimbabwe to the transport to the roastery in Strassbourg and the distribution via water to the customer, to the water pressure in the coffee machine during the production of your own coffee at home.
In this case, the image shows passengers passing by the roastery on water or on land the shape and path of the Rhine from the roastery to Basel on the white layer. So the graphic is at the same time a map on the basis of the Rhine, which touches three countries on this way. In the background you can see the final destination: the bean that goes through various processes and paths and turns into a cup of coffee that invites you to enjoy the moment here on a balcony in the Matthäus quartier in Kleinbasel.
The open doors that frame the balcony, as well as the view into the green and into the distance, stand for the conscious pause, the enjoyment of the coffee and the moment in which the thoughts can roam freely.
Water also as a timeline. „Until then, there‘s still a lot of water flowing down the Rhine,“ they say in Basel. This popular saying conveys that a lot can still happen before something is really decided. The perception of time and space has changed for all of us in recent months. Some have had to work much more. Others much less. If you were one of the lucky ones you had a garden or a balcony. This small private place in the public space. For a moment the only place outside where you felt free and safe. As a consequence, however, you could only enjoy your coffee alone instead of in company. The only thing left to do was to look into the distance, let water run down the river and hope for better times.
The pandemic showed us how fragile our everyday life is, how quickly it cracks and begins to crumble.
But the white line was also used as a border: instead of seeing the Rhine as a unifying and natural element between nations, it was again used as a border between countries trying differently to cope with the pandemic and closing their gates.
The image also shows the viewer this moment – the moment of reflection and standstill during the crisis. For some experienceable for others ardently desirable. Maybe this break in our everyday life also made us look at life differently and change things.

In the night only the Rhine will be seen due to glowing-in-the-dark-paint and reminds on the horizon.
After the project, the fabric will be uses to sew swimming bags who can be used to swim in the Rhine – to literally float on this border.

2021

For les Talents Sati

Invited for the finals: 2. Place