The fire emoji is among the pictograms most used worldwide on social media and in electronic communications. With a gigantic yellow-red flame, Berlin-based artist Aram Bartholl (born 1972) brings this familiar sign from the digital world into real space, stripping the symbol of the logic automatically assigned to in the context of networked communications.
The title quotes a well-known cartoon meme in which a dog persuades itself all is well even though it’s surrounded by blazing flames. The installation, installed on Klarissenplatz outside Neues Museum as part of the city’s Mauerblümchen culture festival, thus not only acts as a bright backdrop for photos, but also refers to the various crises we currently face: the world is on fire.
A cooperative project by Neues Museum with the Project Bureau at the City of Nuremberg’s Office of Culture as part of the Mauerblümchen festival from September 8–7, 2023.
The festival is subsidized with funds from the Bavarian Urban Development Programme and the Special Fund for Animating City Centres.