THE RIVER - becomes The Pillar of the EARTH.2025

This work is dedicated to the moments when the universe seems to stop,
when the stream of life hesitates,
when breath is lost and time itself freezes.

The river becomes the pillar of the earth.

It is a stark image of humanity’s inability to learn from experience.
Layer by layer, the rescue shirts are placed over a pre-constructed column,
forming a tree-like sculpture.
The sleeves hang down like branches — a fragile forest of memory.
This act recalls the darkest images of human cruelty,
awakening associations with the great catastrophes of European history.

At the same time, it becomes a monument —
a quiet, necessary sign of remembrance and reflection.

THE PILLAR of THE EARTH
In the act of layering, a new performance emerges.
The gesture itself — simple, repetitive, almost dry — becomes unbearably moving.
The rescue shirts carry a human presence; each layer is a body, a memory.

At a certain moment, the action dissolves into something else:
it recalls the unthinkable images of history —
the silent horror of bodies laid upon one another,
the unbearable evidence of what human cruelty can become.

It was not planned. It appeared, uninvited, as truth does.
And in that instant, The River became more than an installation —
it became a witness to human cruelty.

https://hundrich.de/category/theriver-blog/