Since his trip through Romania in early 2000, Hans Schabus has been looking for the endless column. He has dedicated various projects that deal with the motif of movement to this search. The title refers to a sculpture that Constantin Brancusi erected in 1937 in the Carpathian foothills in Targu jiu, which is part of a World War I memorial.

The column stands still, yet its title points far beyond. For Schabus, it functions as a leitmotif for movement and for overcoming the measurable—an endless assertion of a neverending search. The column stands for progress and moving on, for leaving a place and for being on the way.

Hans Schabus is traveling to Munich by train—from where, we don’t know exactly. He is bringing three suitcases with him—suitcases that he first used in 1998 for the performative film 100 running meters.

Using one hand, he carries the three suitcases, one after the other, down the street. Leave the train station, put down a suitcase. Go back, pick up another, and carry it to the front. Go back to move forward. Constantly. With all suitcases in sight. This back and forth movement dynamizes the route. It’s five times as long.

Like a musical score, Hans Schabus carries his notes into position, keeps them constantly in motion. The suitcases show each other the direction. They seem to be left alone on the side of the road, waiting for their turn. They are characterized by the need to be carried. The suitcases are wrapped in foil, obscuring the fact that they are locked. The private rubs against the public membrane.

The route runs along the Sonnenstrasse to the south, where a provisional destination is located in at the Kunstraum München in the Holzstrasse. Overnight, the suitcases will form a group there and then be pulled apart and carried back to the train station the next day to continue a journey that never ends.

Hans Schabus was born 1970 in Watschig, Austria, and lives in Vienna. From 1991 to 1996, he studied sculpture with Bruno Gironcoli at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Since 2012, he has taught at the University of Applied Arts where he heads the Department of Sculpture and Space.

Hans Schabus has exhibited his work nationally and internationally since 1992. He gained international renown for his design of the Austrian Pavilion at the 40th Biennale di Venezia in 2005.