Christian Gonzenbach

Fafnir

Fafnir, 2011

Wood

2000 x 950 x 100 cm

 

Name of a dragon in Norse mythology, Fafnir is also the name of a glider that was constructed in wood in Germany in the 1930s. Since, at one point, it was launched with an elastic at the top of the Jungfrau in Switzerland. The aerodynamic aircraft – recreated by enlarging a model to its original scale – is 20 meters wide and recalls the refined elegance of design of its time.  In a precarious attempt to land inside a narrow confinement of a building, the structure has undergone an unfortunate contortion causing disfigurement and entrapment like a poor insect that either outgrew the space or got stuck in a hole too small to free itself.