STARTING POINT: An Intercontinental Journey with a sculpture

He left Munich in September 2010, crossing 10 European borders, finally arriving in Istanbul, where he crossed the Bosphorus to the Asian side – to a new continent. This was the final stage of his journey.

His project contains multiple messages. The importance of the project lies beneath, in the core concepts. The installation and the project focus on the idea of freedom: the freedom to move through boundaries which are geographical, artistic and political.

For the artist, the expedition across the Bosphorus is the proof that individual freedom and freedom of movement is possible.
 
The core element of the expedition is the vehicle – a 1960’s Czech, 3 -wheel, Velorex Oscar 16/350, which provides a credible and functional image for boundless mobility sans the hubris of Western technology. Its steel ribs spanned with protective material, remind of space -vehicles or folding canoes. A relatively speedy conversion by attaching the car to a Czech dinghy “Mathilda” makes the vehicle amphibian, enabling it to cross over rivers and seas as a “boat car.” Geographical hindrances thus become surmountable.

He crossed and pushed back a number of borders: borders that were created by the authorities and borders between nations.  His message contains a political dimension of the sculpture. By its movement through public space, it becomes a social action.
Schnurer is not only testing the boundaries of his own artifacts but is also spotlighting the socio-political boundaries dividing Europe and Turkey.
In one artistic aspect of the installation Schnurer is redrawing hypothetical boundaries using his car as a tool. It is an unconventional project that defies a traditional disciplinary categorization. He is exploring a mode of representation which is intended to provoke and broaden the way viewers perceive and experience art.
According to the artist, his art can be experienced outside the “holy” confines of a museum and is accessible, literally, to the man on the street.
However, Schnurer doesn’t only want to surmount geographical boundaries, but also political ones.
His world is where the burlesque, dangerous and insurmountable appear natural.