Cloud Walk 10

Gerhard Lang’s first ever Cloud Walk in a city was scheduled to take place in New York in early 2013 (Cloud Walk 10). The accompanying documentation shows the first attempt made on 30 January 2013. It offers insight into several features of such a walk in an urban context.

Gerhard Lang’s previous Cloud Walks in the countryside were undertaken in rough terrain and on steep paths up mountains in order to reach the clouds (cf. Cloud Walk 3 on this website). Here, in New York, Lang marched through street canyons and mounted stairs to the roof of a skyscraper to ascend into the clouds. In both instances, Lang walked with the aid of walking sticks, carrying his equipment in a backpack, and was accompanied by at least one witness.

The location Gerhard Lang selected for Cloud Walk 10 was the MetLife Building behind Grand Central Station. The architects – who included Walter Gropius – positioned the skyscraper off the street grid and in the middle of Park Avenue. For Lang, the position of Grand Central Station and the MetLife Building is an exception that proves the rule of Manhattan's uniform grid pattern. The particular historical and aesthetic features of this skyscraper made it the most suitable location for his work.

On 30 January 2013, around 5.30 a.m., the weather service reiterated its forecast of the previous few days. This particular day appeared to offer ideal conditions for a Cloud Walk. Blustery winds were not expected until the afternoon. At 6 a.m. Gerhard Lang left his apartment at 112 Hudson Street, where he was living as a grant-holder of the Hessische Kulturstiftung, accompanied by the photographer Manfred Reiff and the sociologist Christina Lammer. By the time they arrived at the MetLife Building at 7.50 a.m., two thirds of the skyscraper were immersed in cloud. As they were climbing the stairs inside the building, the storm reached New York City, considerably earlier than estimated. When Lang, accompanied by his two witnesses and two security officers, stepped out onto the roof at 8.55 a.m., the clouds had already shifted and were only visible at a distance.

The nature of a cloud walk is like that of a cloud: it is unpredictable. So at dawn on 30 January I did not know whether the cloud walk would visibly pass through a cloud. A second walk on the MetLife Building would be just as hard to determine as the first. By contrast, Could Walk 3 in the Scottish Highlands clearly passed through a cloud.

The ephemeral essence of a cloud is reminiscent of the radical temporality of all sensorial entities occluded in a scientifically defined world outlook.

For more details on Gerhard Lang's Cloud Walks:
– Cloud Walk 3, Schiehallion, Scotland
– Cloud Walk 11, Furka Pass, Switzerland

Building was enveloped in cloud for almost the entire day.

Cloud Walk 10, 30th January 2013

Low cloud over Lower Manhattan.

Photography with the kind permission of Tishman Speyer Property, L.P. and Metro-North Railroad

Thanks to: Lucius und Annemarie Burckhardt Stiftung Hessische Kulturstiftung Reinhold Engberding Christina Lammer JH Artist Group LLC Metro-North Railroad Manfred Reiff Metroweather Christian Rattemeyer

Tishman Speyer Property, L.P.

Professor Dr. Stephan Weyer-Menkhoff Translation: Matthew Partridge