It's a bit creepy: an antique operating table serves as a dining table, along with old dentist's chairs for sitting down comfortably. And strange machines everywhere. Alexander Schlesier has transformed his entire apartment into a steampunk world.
On the outskirts of the city in a rural setting, the designer, artist and tinkerer has set up his very own universe in a nondescript ground-floor apartment. Steampunk is a retro-futuristic term and has its origins in literature. Its beginnings go back to authors such as Jules Verne or H. G. Wells, who at the time pondered what the technology of the future might look like.
His main job is as a 3D designer, currently for the automotive industry. For him, tinkering with the steampunk machines is a balance to his work on the computer.
This retro-futuristic and partly morbid aesthetic of steampunk first caught Alexander's eye about ten years ago at a music festival and left a lasting impression on him. At first it was small accessories that he made from broken or obsolete technical devices and flea market finds. But his passion quickly expanded to larger projects, and today he lives completely surrounded by his works and collected objects, which he plans to transform later.
Wherever you look in the apartment, you can see objects in the steampunk look: jewelry, watches, masks, clothing, lamps, furniture and many mysterious devices that you can not really classify at first glance. You really have to look for classic furnishings from modern furniture stores in these rooms.
The apartment resembles a museum cabinet of curiosities, and the abundance of bizarre objects casts a spell over it. After all, in all the details of the antique and repurposed items, there are also many stories. For many antiques and vintage objects Alexander can tell how and where he found them and how it came to the transformation or repurposing. And almost all objects have a history and were used in a completely different way in the past. The viewer is thus reminded of the permanent change in our world, but also of our own finiteness.
The apartment furnishings exert a fascinating mixture of attraction and repulsion at the same time, which Alexander stages very deliberately. The spatial and temporal irritation already begins in the entrance area of the private apartment, where visitors are greeted by a time clock from industrial times. In the living room, modern technology mixes with old teleprinters and stuffed animals. The kitchen is dominated by historical furniture from pharmacies, doctors' offices and hospitals. At first glance, this seems strange or macabre, but it purposefully questions our habits of use and sight. For example, could a decommissioned operating table also serve well in a modern kitchen due to its adjustability and flexibility? Why is such an idea alien to us?
But for Alexander, steampunk is not just love for a certain materiality and aesthetic, but also an attitude. For him, steampunk is also criticism of the wasteful ephemerality of our consumer society. The counter design that Steampunk offers has a lot to do with sustainability, appreciation for good craftsmanship, antiques, recycling and upcycling, but also with deceleration.
Thus, some of the objects built by Alexander are purely decorative, but others can be (re)used in everyday life. Parts of a discarded sewing machine, for example, can meet a broken coffee machine in his workshop and bring it back to life in steampunk garb. An old doctor's chair is transformed into an individually adjustable office chair, a historic apothecary's cabinet into a spice rack, and a mechanical teletype machine into a printer connected to the Internet - all in a steampunk look, of course.
A film by Oleg Kauz (editorial, camera, editing), Cécilia Marchat (sound), Feline Gerhardt (camera) and Mirjam Michutta (assistance). Production: EIKON Media GmbH, on behalf of SWR.
00:00 Alex's steampunk world
00:38 Living room
04:01 Kitchen
08:12 Evidence room
08:54 Bedroom
10:00 Bathroom
10:31 Mobile steampunk apartment
12 июл 2024
