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The Robot King
The Robot King
«The Robot King» is a wordplay, derived from the German concept of the «rat king». It is widely understood in the German language that «rat king» stands for an image of many rats who are knotted together by their tails. If this phenomenon is real or not, is a question of belief. In formal terms the «rat king» is a fascinating constellation.
Martin Gut`s «The Robot King» is a kinetic sculpture with eleven small output mechanics, who’s original work were as components in a cigarette vending machine. Martin Gut groups these dismantled elements in a circle, so that the anthropomorphic-looking parts with their black eyes seem to bow endlessly inwards. This collective ritual prayer has a highly irritating effect, because the repetitive movements are literally performed robotically, without free will, and the worshipped “being” in the middle consists of nothing but its own tangle of cables, which supplies the praying ensemble with electricity.
From the perspective of the robot king, the gray power cable is the sacred bond that holds the community together and supplies it with life-giving energy. From a Western enlightened point of view, it is of course reassuring that individual robots have their individual quirks and go on strike every now and then.
Text: Guy Markowitsch, on the occasion of the vernissage at Galerie Vitrine, 2020
