:: IDEA / Concept

As we thought about this invasion of the unknown population, it was clear that the sculptures have to be light, easy to handle and transport, run independent of the power grid, yet be a size that people can see from far away and instantly become attracted to it.

We wanted to combine familiar, known elements with something new, or something known but interpreted in our way so that the known element is a kind of gateway for people passing by, thus delivering a new interpretation which grabs their attention. Furthermore it would be cool to make it easy to produce without the need for specialized knowledge, like Keith Haring’s philosophy: “You can do it on your own. Do it yourself!” We want to add: The world is a construction kit.

Months ago we came in contact with the endless universe of paper folding techniques. It attracted our attention as we found it fascinating to start from a single piece of plain paper and by following certain folding principles, forming a 2- or 3 dimensional object out of it. Although at that time we played mostly around with geometrical patterns and abstract geometric objects, Origami was already in our mind. This reduction of body and form, without loosing its typical appearance or characteristic that you already know it’s a bird, a swan, a pig, whatever… is something really fascinating.

At this point we have found our basic element: Origami-animals. Following one of our principles: “BIG IS BEAUTIFUL”, we decided to build animals in life-size. We choose animals, which are legendary creatures or at least stand for certain characteristics. Fables are deeply intertwined in our language. Often we use certain animals to describe or underline certain human characteristics, such as “smart as a fox”, “lazy as a pig” or “crazy as a monkey”. We liked the idea that the sculptures may inspire such thoughts, associations or emotions.

The glowing wires which are attached to the edges creates a new interpretation for the viewer. It has something futuristic and sci-fi-like, as if they came from outer space. It seems they have an unknown, pure and clean form of energy which makes them glow. But what are they doing here? Where are they come from? What do they want?
We don’t have a clear answer to this questions. The real question is: What are YOU doing here?

In the end, the project is a kind of search or a trace – mainly of yourself and the world around you, if you will allow it to be. The project title underlines this intention: TR.ON stands for TRace ON, a special “debug” code in the computer programming language “BASIC”. ORIGAMI comes from ori meaning “folding”, and kami(gami) meaning “paper”.