VoCA has seen an exhibition that blew the entire Venice Biennale away.

Gregor Schneider’s Weisse Folter (White Torture) at the K21 in Dusseldorf shook us to our very core. More a haunted house than traditional art exhibition, the installation is a must-see, though we wouldn’t really wish it on our enemies.

We were told by the gallery guard that people were allowed in only by ones or twos. Also, that once inside, we were to continue through to the exit, which came out at the museum’s garden.

Down a set of stairs, we were confronted with a door with a perplexing handle. The guard gestured to enter. We couldn’t figure out how the door opened. We slid, we pushed and pulled the door. Finally one last try. It clicked and we were inside.

NB: If the images don’t show up for you, please click HERE.

(Entrance exhibition) Image: © Gregor Schneider / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

A stark white sealed hallway lined with more odd doors, each with a small frosted pane . These ones slid open, or at least some of them did, leading to tiny, clinical rooms with stainless steel toilets (as you might find in a prison) and arrows pointing in odd directions. Other doors in the hallway wouldn’t budge, though some were lit from inside.

PASSAGEWAY No. 1, 2005-2007 (1500×200x230cm) (LxBxH).
Image: © Gregor Schneider / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

HIGH SECURITY AND ISOLATION CELL No. 2, 2005 (338×220x230cm) (LxBxH).
Image: © Gregor Schneider / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

One door opened to a vestibule with another door. No signs, but we presumed we were to continue. Sure enough, the door led to an identical hallway, with identical sliding doors. We tried a few, none opened. Then, one opened into a small hallway, where we saw a green metal mesh door, and a closed white room beyond. We just couldn’t go in there, it looked too spooky.

X-RAY, 2007 (382×299x414cm) (LxBxH).
Image: © Gregor Schneider / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Another door. This one opened to a white vestibule, again. A second door led to an empty, metal-lined room with another door at the back. It was dark, save for a dim light in one corner, and it was cold. We left the hall door open (just in case) and proceeded to the first metal door. This door was slightly weighted and would slam shut if we let go.

PASSAGEWAY No. 4, 2005-2007 (entrance WASHING ROOM).
Image: © Gregor Schneider / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

We were shocked to see that this door had no inner handle. If we were to let it go, we would surely be locked inside the cold, dark metal room. But would the second metal door be open? Was this the correct room to be in?

Extreme claustrophobia struck – we were moments away from sheer panic. Our heart was beating fast, there were no signs, no people, no assistance. There was no way we could go on, yet there seemed no way out, either.

WASHING ROOM, 2007 (418×310x263cm) (LxBxH)
Image: © Gregor Schneider / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

We quickly retraced our steps and exited by the entrance. The guards didn’t look surprised, they had obviously seen this reaction before.

A life-changing experience, definitely not for the faint of heart.

To see where the hallways led, click HERE.

Upon reflection, it was like being inside a Thomas Demand photograph.

(Demand takes media images and meticulously re-creates them in paper, void of any identifying factors, before photographing them.)

Thomas Demand, Flur, 1995. Image: nmwb.de

By doing away with any kind of reassuring signifier - or any signifier at all, Schneider has created a nightmarish non-world, one that would never exist in reality.

Except that it sort of does.

The size and set up of the rooms, doors and hallways were taken from internet images of Guantanamo Bay.

A typical “noncompliant detainee” cell at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
Image: z.about.com/US Department of Defence

Yikes.