People Are Matches. Art Philosophical Project “Burntout” by Wolfgang Stiller

To get scared, get interested, think, admire – approximately in this scenario, the first acquaintance with a series of sculptures Matchstick Men. Sculptures, whole and charred matches of a giant size, are part of the philosophical art project Burnout from the German sculptor Wolfgang Stiller.

The project is not without reason called philosophical: matches are crowned with human heads, which, in fact, can frighten the uninitiated spectator. And despite the fact that the author of the sculptures does not give any explanations, offering the public to draw their own conclusions, the name “Burnout” speaks for itself.

People are like matches. Alone, delicate, fragile, helpless, at first resist, but it is worth pressing, – bend, and then break. Several matches will not be so easy to break. But they burn more, hotter and brighter. One match lights another, that’s how people light each other with ideas, emotions, mood. Only the fate of match people is completely different. Some burn weakly and quickly go out, others instantly burn to the ground, and there are others who do not want to light, no matter how hard they try. They will break, but they will not light up. These burned, charred and whole matches with human heads filled the exhibition hall, allowing visitors to the gallery to peer into their faces. And there is a look at that: working on the sculptures of Matchstick Men, Wolfgang Stiller never repeated, so that among them there are not two identical expressions of the face, two identical emotions. Each match is individual, like every person on earth.