In the late 1960s, Imi Knoebel produced a series of artworks entitled Innenprojektionen [Inner Projections], which were based on the principle of a basic form of light projection in an exhibition space: these forms were often straight lines, which, when projected onto uneven surfaces – a curved wall, for instance – instantly became deformed.

In the early 1970s, Imi Knoebel exported this principle from the gallery to urban space: the video Projektion X – produced during nocturnal wanderings in the city of Darmstadt – is one of the sole remnants of these outdoor experiences. The system is simple: a projector screening a luminous 'X' is attached to the roof of a car, along with a video recorder. In a sequence shot lasting forty minutes – the length that corresponds to the errant trajectory of the vehicle in the streets of Darmstadt – the camera records the results of the projection of the 'X' in the city streets. While the system at first seems to be particularly austere, the results are less monotonous than you'd expect. The bright cross appears or disappears according to the distance of the objects that it encounters, and depending on the intensity of the additional light sources that it comes into contact with in the course of its urban display. It glides, changes dimension and doubles up, depending on the screening surfaces: trees, the façades of buildings, urban openings, and so on. By opposing a perfect geometric design to the complexity of the real world, Imi Knoebel undertakes an exercise in distortion of the random results, and presents a video whose “screen, and not the image, perpetually changes”. [1] In presenting a concrete space through an abstract geometric design, he approaches the concerns of the American Minimalists, as well as research into space that was a regular feature of the history of geometric abstraction, from Malevich to Constructivism.

Philippe Bettinelli

[1] Marc Noushi, “Les défis d'un projet”, Imi Knoebel, vitraux de la cathédrale de Reims, collectif Bielefeld, Kerber Verlag, 2011, p.10.