Spielraum is a thought-provoking book sculpture installation that explores the concept of “inner confinement”—what it feels like to be trapped within your own memory and cultural context. The work centers on the life and philosophy of Anton Wilhelm Amo, the first black German philosopher (1703-1759). By reflecting on Amo’s ideas, the installation asks: How free are our thoughts when the body is isolated from its surroundings? How long can the mind and, according to Amo, the soul sustain themselves on memories of a life that is perceived as “free”?

The installation incorporates abstract sentences, quotations from Amo’s Apatheia text, and a portrait inscribed on paper. These elements serve as a visual and intellectual stimulus, creating a “Spielraum”— a space for reflection—on the idea of “Otherness.” In 1734, Amo questioned the limitations of his own space and identity, a query that remains strikingly relevant today as we continue to confront issues of freedom, isolation, and cultural context.

Spielraum invites the viewer to contemplate how memory, identity, and freedom intersect, while encouraging deep reflection on the continued relevance of Amo’s ideas in the modern world. A meditation on the experience of being “othered” and how we relate to the notion of freedom in both a physical and metaphysical sense.

As a child “gifted” to the count of Wolfenbüttel, Germany, Anton Wilhelm Amo Afer Guinea grew up to become Germany’s first Black Philosopher.

Spielraum: The space “given” as well as the space to play in.

Spielraum won the 2022 Artist Book Prize from the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, Germany.

Dimensions: 24 x 24 x 1 inch (folded book), 14 x 14 feet (unfolded book), 2 x 2 x 6 feet (hanging sculpture)
Deliver time: 4 weeks