Cosmic Vessels, 2025

With Cosmic Vessels, Alexandra Knie presented a tactile spatial installation at the Kunstverein Oerlinghausen in the Old Synagogue. The work is inspired by textile metaphors found in popular science literature on theoretical physics, where the universe and space-time are often described as a fabric—a woven structure through which matter ripples, offering a way to visualise complex phenomena. Drawing on these metaphors, Knie weaves poetic connections between micro- and macrocosm, art and science, as well as past and present.
The „cosmic vessels“ carry individual imaginations and desires while also referencing, in the context of the former synagogue, a collective memory.
In the new series of works Space Symmetries, Knie also echoes the symmetry of the Old Synagogue’s windows, creating links between architectural and cosmic space.