Anish Kapoor, Svayambh, 2007. Installation view Haus der Kunst. © Jens Weber, Munich

MUNICH.-The London-based artist Anish Kapoor created a new work specially for Haus der Kunst as part of his first comprehensive solo-exhibition in Germany since showing 1991 at the Kunstverein Hannover and 1996/1997 at the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne. Anish Kapoor has created a new work specially for Haus der Kunst and in response to its monumental architecture. The title of this piece and of the exhibition relates back to the Sanskrit "Svayambhu(v)" meaning self-generated or auto generated.

"Svayambh" is a deep red, wax-like block that will be moving almost imperceptibly along a set of tracks, which reach from one end of the entire eastern galleries to the other. Its appearance which is reminiscent of a train can be related back to Kapoor’s fascination with Andrei Konchalovsky’s film "Runaway Train" (1985), where two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a train with no brakes and nobody driving. Creating a red line through the building, "Svayambh" passes through two doorways, which form and seemingly force the block through their restrictive frames making it leave behind smeary traces of its material: a mixture of Vaseline, paint and wax.

This enormous red mass reminiscent of compacted blood evokes an almost apocalyptic image. Interestingly a red heifer or "parah adumah" notably adom means red and dam means blood in Hebrew is often associated with the Apocalypse in Judaism. "Svayambh" can be seen in direct correlation to a further site-specific work, a "wound" or slit of about 1,5 m that Kapoor will carve directly into a wall. Images such as these carry even greater connotations in a building with such a difficult history as the Haus der Kunst’s.

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