The Wind Tunnel raises many questions and, in particular, critically examines the period of the early modern era—when the thunder of cannons and high-speed trains fascinated the Futurists in Italy, the Vorticists in England, and Der Sturm in Germany. This epoch, shaped by a belief in limitless progress and growth, as well as in the idea of linear time, influenced both a techno-affirmative science and a corresponding aesthetic expression.
Modernity drove the acceleration of life—regardless of its consequences or the destruction it entailed. In this momentum, Western colonial thought, based on extractivist practices and the separation of mind and body, reached its peak.
Today, looking back, we say that this led into a dead end—a point of no return. Today, we seek to unlearn, to slow down, and to reconnect with people and our surroundings. For this reason, the Wind Tunnel at ZHdK is designed for slow wind, known in aerodynamics as creeping flow—in search of an alternative path through history.
The Wind Tunnel was created by Florian Dombois as a place for transdisciplinary exchange, and as an alternative (and commenting) space within—or rather, on top of—the institution. Over the past ten years, it has been gradually built up with art students and assistants—initially as a provisional laboratory that has slowly established itself on the roof.