Proposal

"Public Fountain LSD Hall" is a proposal for a public building. I first offered it to the city of Dresden in Germany and it was rejected.
It could be created in any big western city. I would like the Hall to become a reality sooner than later.
For the developing of the Hall, I collaborated with an architect, a neuropsychologist and the Institute of Homeopathy.

 

The liquid circulating in the sculpture "LSD-Fountain" by Klaus Weber (2003) is made from potentized LSD (D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-25).
It has been professionally prepared. The nature and mind-altering effects of it have been confirmed in provings conducted by the School of Homœopathy in London 1999.
For more details see http://www.hominf.org/lsd/lsdintr.htm#phar
Potentized LSD is LSD that has been diluted by a special process to such a degree that not a trace of chemical LSD remains. However, this process essentializes the effects of LSD and these effects have been felt by those who have taken it.
Peter Fraser, Director of the Institute of Homœopathy


The Hall

It is 24 meters long, 12 meters high and 16 meters wide, constructed from glass and steel. The walls of the building will be made from metal grating; a special mesh embedded in glass. The viewer can look outside to the surrounding environment but passers-by cannot look inside.
Each window is slightly opened, so that the outside temperature will be similar to the inside. The walls are situated 100 mm above the ground, so one can see the "real" space flowing inside and out. Under the roof hangs the carnivore plant Nepenthes*, that normally sits on trees, to wait and see.
The Hall structure resembles a box that is stationed in the existing public space. The box includes all the existing objects found in the environment, for example: traffic lights, benches, street signs, etc. Like objects in an ethnography museum all these things become dysfunctional.

The Fountain
A crystal glass fountain that circulates liquid potentized LSD, which stands in the centre of the Hall. This is the only object inside the building that was not there before. It is possible to enjoy a drink from the fountain. One can sit inside the Hall and watch the city without being watched. This situation can be compared with the experiences of a traveller. By viewing the local practices with the clarity of an outsider`s perspective, one is able to notice the weirdness of daily life, which through repetition has lost its meaning to the local inhabitants."

Klaus Weber
London, October 2003

 

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* Nepenthe : ne·pen·the
Pronunciation: n&-'pen(t)-thE
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin nepenthes, from Greek nEpenthes, neuter of nEpenthEs banishing pain and sorrow, fromnE- not + penthos grief, sorrow; akin to Greek pathos suffering -- more at NO, PATHOS
Date: 1580
1 : a potion used by the ancients to induce forgetfulness of pain or sorrow
2 : something capable of causing oblivion of grief or suffering
3 : A synonym for liquid Opium used in the 19th century, for example, in Poe's "The Raven"
4: A genus (Nepenthes) of carnivorous tropical pitcher plants

http://www.omnisterra.com/botany/cp/pictures/nepenthe/dansermg/dans11.htm