Hamburg's 500-year stalactite machine drips in the Kunsthalle basement

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The Hamburger Kunsthalle houses almost 91,000 works of art. The most famous of these is undoubtedly Caspar David Friedrich’s 'Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer' (Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog). However, among the various collections on display, one modest piece might easily pass unnoticed in the Contemporary Art section. In the basement of the 'Galerie der Gegenwart' (Gallery of Contemporary Art), a room with four columns connects 'the Cube' to the exhibition halls hidden beneath the 'Plateau' in front of the museum’s entrance. This passageway leads to a small room with walls covered in travertine, via a doorway without a door. Behind a glass pane, piping running from the ceiling terminates in a natural-looking stalactite. The work entitled 'Tropfsteinmaschine, 1996–2496' by Bogomir Ecker is this stalactite.

Literally 'concretion machine' in German, this work is an imposing installation that spans the museum from the roof to the basement. Its purpose is to create a stalactite and a stalagmite that will grow naturally over the course of five centuries. The installation begins on the roof, where rainwater is collected. It is then stored in a reservoir on the first floor of the museum, which will maintain the water supply in the event of a drought. The water is then sent to a planter on the ground floor, where it is naturally enriched with carbon dioxide and limestone. Finally, it reaches the basement, where a pipe in the ceiling allows it to drip out, drop by drop.

The power of this work lies in its ability to make us contemplate a process designed to last longer than a human lifetime, despite its apparent simplicity. It is rooted in the long term, helping us to understand the cultural eras and fleeting events it will pass through. It will take several generations to care for it and bring this process to completion (this idea is reminiscent of the work ' Longplayer ' in London; the ' Clock of the Long Now '; or John Cage's composition, which will be played for 639 years in the St. Burchardi Church in Halberstadt).

In addition, this work meticulously seeks to replicate a natural process—the formation of a stalactite—through artificial means. In a surprising twist, this unfolds within the confines of a museum – a setting where, by convention, natural processes are typically prohibited to ensure the optimal preservation of the artworks.