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SERIEN PERSPEKTIVWECHSEL • CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE
Foto: Carola Krekow; Copright Asisi
Yadegar Asisi inszeniert das Licht für „Die Kathedrale von Monet – Die Hoffnung der Moderne“ (2020) ... friend who has been contributing the soundtrack to my panoramas for many years; then
... im Panorama XXL in Rouen. BesucherInnen können das Panorama von verschiedenen Standpunkten erleben. usually looks very self-contained and realistic – but that’s a good thing.
Foto: Carola Krekow; Coprigh Asisi
Das 360°-Panorama „Great Barrier Reef“ faszinierte in Leipzig (2015), Rouen (2017) und Pforzheim (2018).
Foto: Copyright Asisi
038 • AIT 09.2023
this medium. It quasi became an obsession for me to revive this art form and free it from
the rigid ideological corset of the past. For me, the panorama is a medium of our time, it
combines painting with stage design, theatre and cinematic image effects.
r As you say, you devoted yourself to drawing at a young age. How important is it in
your profession to master these skills?
One cannot emphasize enough how important drawing is. Not only for my profession,
but as a general means of experiencing the world. It is a cultural form that should not
be underestimated, for me one of the greatest achievements of humanity. And although I
work a lot with the computer, it’s impossible to make a panorama without the knowledge
of drawing and perspective. The great thing is that you can visualize the conceptual process
of finding the subject and the point of view. Sketching the composition is an immensely
important, lengthy process. Each panorama works compositionally both as an overall
image and in many individual sections that stand on their own.
r And how time-consuming are the preliminary and research work for a project – on
site, in cooperation with project partners, scientists and your team?
The process always takes a few years. My team consists of a core team of about 15 people
and other project partners, specialists and artists. These include Eric Babak, a composer
Jörg Tritthardt, structural engineer for textile constructions, and a few others. For many
visitors, the effort behind it is not even apparent, simply because the finished picture
r The Panometer Leipzig – a neologism made up of panorama and gasometer –
celebrates its 20th birthday this year. What does this anniversary mean to you?
Without the Panometer Leipzig, the revival of the art form of the panorama would not
have been possible and today it occupies a special position, as a premiere house. There
are numerous other locations – Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, the city of Luther Wittenberg,
Pforzheim. Soon Vienna and Constance will be added. I like to look back on the past 20
years in Leipzig. There has been constant development. I still have many themes that I
would like to realize. In the Panometer, everything is already planned until 2030.
r The panorama New York 9/11 – War in Times of Peace is currently on show in Leipzig.
What can visitors expect there?
New York 9/11 will be on show in Leipzig until spring 2024. I came up with the theme
the World Trade Center, because I contributed a panorama to Daniel Libeskind’s design.
partly through my involvement in the architectural competition for the reconstruction of
Shortly after the attacks, I was in the pit where the Twin Towers used to stand. That is why
I have a personal relationship with that place. Ten years later, it must have been in 2010,
I realized what had become of those attacks. Our response was violence in the form of
the so-called “war on terror” that claimed over a million lives, devastated whole swathes
of land and sowed hatred for many generations. I could not help but ask questions
about the causes and consequences of this violence. In the panorama, we return to the
starting point. When we think of September 11, everyone immediately has the image of the
terrorist attacks in mind. But that’s not what I wanted to show. What we see is a moment
th
that fascinates by its normality. We are in a very banal street scene at 8.41 a.m. on 11
September 2001 and see the still intact world with the Twin Towers. In the guided tour,
however, I first talk about the consequences of the attacks, the reappraisal of the “war on
terror” in installations that hopefully create a feeling for this monstrosity. It is my personal
statement against the wars of our present and also my fourth anti-war project.
r Idea, concept, technique, poetry, mood – your panoramas are not that far removed
from architecture. But you seem to be much freer ...
Yes, I can choose my subjects freely and am absolutely independent in the way I realize
them. Probably not many architects can claim that. But I do have a wish. However, I don’t
know if I can realize it, because it is very, very complex. I would like to show a city in 200
years. But not as the dystopia that is so common today, but as a utopian model city, as an
absolutely positive image of the future. I want to create a world that people would like to
live in, not as a dream or fantasy, but based on what we know today. What development
of the city as a place of living together can we imagine? For this positive vision of the future,
I can also well imagine working together with other architects again. That would then
perhaps be my contribution to the future of architecture.