Mexico City, January 6 – 9, 2005
The four-day exhibition 4 Days 4 Elements by Sebastian Gräfe consists of four actions inspired by the elements fire, earth, water and air. Whilst dealing with symbolism and highly conceptual approaches and its implied heaviness of content, Gräfe keeps the works light and equipped with a certain sense of humor. On the first day, he asks passing pedestrians to give him their lighters as a present. Thus, the average man in the street steps into the shoes of Prometheus, who brought fire to mankind in ancient Greek mythology. On the second day, Gräfe walks around in the gallery area collecting all pieces of broken glass, rusty nails and other “dangerous” things lying around in the streets, thus referring to the “urban” jungle and all of its dangers one has to be aware of. Day three is dedicated to water: Gräfe cleans the big window of the gallery, a metaphor for being conscious and for keeping the eyes open. And on the last day of the project, the artist replaces the air in the wheels of his bicycle with spiritual/sacred spray and then drives around in the area. With this action, he wants to make clear that magic can be found everywhere, but that it often hides itself in apparently normal things.
