Sky is the Limit

Sky is the Limit is a site-specific work in a hotel room and is based on the celestial bodies sun, moon and stars, which are depicted on the flags of the nations of the earth and serve the artist as a template for the intervention in the hotel room.

The celestial bodies isolated from the flags are realised in the hotel room as noctilucent forms on walls, curtains and bed. The intervention creates a place of tranquillity in the pre-Christmas season, but also a symbol of Zurich‘s internationality.

Vexillology, a branch of heraldry, deals with the history of flags, the design and creation of flags, their meaning, statements and also emotions associated with them and their use. How are such complex structures as countries symbolically represented? How do we as people position ourselves in relation to our surroundings, to political discussions, to national issues? The symbols of the celestial bodies on the national flags are to be seen and thought of as demarcating or limiting symbols in the actual sense. In contrast, Sky is the limit works out the commonalities and creates something unifying for the visitors, in the sense of what a hotel in a creative and cosmopolitan

city represents.

In the usual observation of the starry sky, we look for a fixed point, e.g. the Big Dipper, to classify our point of view. This will not be possible in this interpretation of the celestial bodies, because the installation acts as an „equaliser“ of the countries. For example, the sun of North Macedonia is larger than the stars of the American flag. The recognition effect of the American flag is great, but what happens when the stars are seen without their distinct background? Can the viewers still identify the American stars? And how many flags and resulting celestial bodies are there that do not have a great recognition effect, with which we are not familiar? The mapping in the work indicates a new world order and inverts proportions or reverses recognition values.

With its simple intervention in the room, the work Sky is the Limit is also a point of calm in the colourful hustle and bustle of a day in the city of Zurich. No large object blocks our view, nothing disturbs our mental wandering. The stars of the world‘s flags encourage us to think differently about our common world. We turn our view upside down and question our place not only in the city, but in the structures of the whole world.

Zurich is a globally important place of exchange, trade and culture. The installation is intended to express this and inspire visitors to carry cosmopolitanism in their hearts and to think big. This is entirely in keeping with the saying Sky is the Limit: „If you say the sky is the limit, you mean that there is nothing to prevent someone or something from being very successful.“ (Collins English Dictionary)

The experience is rounded off by the international news channels: Instead of the usual TV stations, only news channels from all over the world are available on the hotel room screen. News from Eritrea, North Korea, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Myanmar, but also CNN, Fox News or AlJazeera change in quick succession.