Helle Kammer / Bright Chamber

One of the fundamental themes of Kazuo Katase’s sculpture is the notion of seeing light and shadow as mutually conditional manifestations of light, rather than opposing forces. That is why his sculpture is made from white aluminum grid, which simultaneously reflects and allows the light to pass through its openings.
In the sun, the surface reflects the light so that the outside of the sculpture shines like a brightly gleaming box, while a play of shadow fills the interior. In the dark, the 2-part chamber is lit by an artificial light source on the floor of one side, so that a bright flickering moiré effect shines out from the inside; on the exterior, the grid looks like a dark outer skin.
The artist specially developed the exterior shape of the sculpture for its location. It is not a cube; instead, the corners deviate from right angles by 5 degrees, with the sides shaped as parallelograms. The resulting form is called a parallelepiped.
As such, there is an allusion here to the Fresnel parallelepiped, an optical prism that refracts light in a specific way. It also makes reference to the particular geological features of the Ruhrgebiet, where the layers of rock rest on an inclined plane with a 5-degree downward slope from the Ruhr towards the north. The sculpture leans on the same 5-degree slant towards the city; as such, it is specifically grounded in this location in Schwerte, as well as the region and the entire Ruhrgebiet.

Reference: www.rohrmeisterei-schwerte.de