POINT OF INTEREST - Karin Sander

The artist Karin Sander (*1957), who lives in Berlin and Zurich, works site-spe­ci­fi­cally. Sander addres­ses exis­ting situa­tions and the­ma­ti­zes their spe­ci­fic con­texts. She high­lights issues and invi­tes people to engage with and par­ti­ci­pate in the spe­ci­fic themes. The see­mingly fami­liar is ret­hought and beco­mes the start­ing point for a pro­cess of explo­ra­tion. ​“Point of Inte­rest“, a light art­work spe­ci­ally deve­lo­ped for ART FLOW, is cha­rac­te­ristic of this approach of con­tex­tua­liza­tion and ques­tio­ning, as Zurich is the Euro­pean head­quar­ters of the glo­bally active Inter­net com­pany Google, on whose digi­tal plat­forms the icons in the form of a magni­fy­ing glass (”Point of Inte­rest») are omni­pre­sent.

​“Point of Inte­rest” stands for addres­ses of com­mer­cial, cul­tu­ral or tou­rist inte­rest and is inten­ded to help Inter­net users navi­gate through the world. In a way, the magni­fy­ing glass has become syn­ony­mous with digi­tal topo­gra­phy. Now, thanks to Karin Sander, this gra­phic symbol will become a real, seven-metre-high light sculp­ture in Zurich for almost a year – and thus a ​“point of inte­rest” itself. Instal­led on the roof of a high-rise buil­ding near Escher-Wyss-Platz, the ​“Point of Inte­rest” is inten­ded to encou­rage people to think about the use of digi­tal media.

San­der’s art has been shown and awarded many times inter­na­tio­nally, inclu­ding repre­sen­ting Switz­er­land at the Venice Archi­tec­ture Bien­nale in 2023. ​“Point of Inte­rest” was rea­li­zed with the sup­port of Mobimo AG and will be on dis­play until the end of 2025.

Photos and video: @burri.world