With or Without Edge
Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln
(Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne, Germany)
This permanent, light and space installation is the first-ever public art project funded by the city government of Cologne.
This freestanding acrylic sculpture consists of six radially arranged, fan-shaped panels, supported by stainless steel at the base and contacted at a central point. Each panel varies in width and depth, incorporates iridescent film, and features a geometrically shaped, window-like cutout. As viewers move around the sculpture, perspectives shift and multiply, generating layered visual framings, refractions, and spatial reinterpretations. The surrounding environment—whether museum foyer, inner courtyard, or outdoor landscape—is actively incorporated, filtered, and mirrored through the work’s transparent surfaces. Its prismatic materiality captures and disperses light differently depending on time, weather, and season, ensuring a unique perceptual experience with each encounter.
As a collaborative, site-specific commission, it comprises two aesthetically and conceptually interconnected yet autonomous artworks: Gesture in Space (Geste im Raum), a suspended light sculpture by Andreas Schmid, and With or Without Edge (Mit oder ohne Kante), a freestanding spatial sculpture by Zheng Chongbin. Both works draw from diverse sources of inspiration and different discursive traditions, coming together across boundaries. Together, they create a dynamic, open structure that enters into active dialogue with the physical environment of the site and with the visitors to the museum.
More information, Please refer to Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln.
