Turning the Place Over - Richard Wilson

My friend Pat, visiting from the Holme Valley, and I went to see the art installation on Moorfields, Liverpool city centre this morning.

Turning the Place Over by Richard Wilson is a remarkable piece of engineering which held us enthralled.

In essence Richard has taken an empty building - the former Yates's Wine Lodge opposite Moorfields Railway Station and done something amazing with it.

He has cut out a circle which must be about 20 feet in diameter, from the front facade. This circle/disc of material - walls, windows, ledges, radiators, etc, has then been put on hydraulics and revolves on various axis, showing itself front and back, inside and out. It also of course exposes the insides of the building on certain of its turns and every so often it fits perfectly back into the space.

I cannot really explain it very well, I guess it is one of those things you need to see for yourself. If you check out the link I understand there are a lot of video clips you can see. I have also posted a photo I found on the Core77.com website. Credit should go to them for that.

My fascination was with the construction really. I was wondering whether the circle/disc contains the true building, as cut out, or whether it all fell apart when the cutter went through it and this is a faithful reproduction.

The touch that really impressed me was the tiny sliver of radiator that remains on the edge of the disc, which is underneath the window on the inside of the wall.

It is marvellous - and has won very great praise - do go and see it. It is triggered by daylight so is operational all day until the end of 2008.