Wolfgang Winter and Berthold HÀ¶rbelt are best known for their sculptures made using recycled mineral water crates, which have been seen at many large-scale exhibitions in the last five years, including the Biennale di Venezia and the Skulptur.Projekte Munster. Despite this wide exposure, Crossing is their first sculpture to have been commissioned or exhibited in the UK. Constructed from galvanised steel lattice instead of crates, Crossing marks a new development, yet its permeability to light and air is a recurrent characteristic of their work. Crossing has been designed especially for the ‘balcony’ that runs over the top of a row of shops hiding the facade of Lime Street Station. The intention of the piece is to bring this neglected spot in the city centre back into public use, so celebrating (and incidentally forming an implicit critique) of the context in which it is placed. It also creates an excellent ‘viewpoint’ from which to observe Liverpool and some of its most important buildings – St George’s Hall, the Walker Art Gallery and Quarter Sessions Court. The sculpture is a curtain-like construction with a meandering form to its plan, a form typical for the artists, who have shown a consistent fascination with boundaries and membranes. The ground plan was adapted from the shape of a puddle on the balcony, an organic form that inherently ‘reflects’ its surroundings. The sculpture is designed to be entered: once inside, the visitor will catch veiled glimpses of the city through its layered walls. The title, Crossing, is a play on the fact that, although the station is a point of arrival and departure, the balcony is a cul-de-sac, a point of stillness, a place from which to meditate on crossings rather than make them. A crossing can be understood both as a place in which people congregate, but also a threshold that separates, in this case, the people of Liverpool from the surrounding region. The balcony floor is painted in bright colours to emphasise the playfulness of the sculpture. The sculpture offers the participatory engagement of voyeurism and play. These are ‘free’, and often unacknowledged, aspects of creativity in the city. When recognised at all, it is usually only in order to turn them into a form of retail consumerism. Crossing is intended to contribute to a material dialogue between citizens and city, helping to create a debate around the planning of Liverpool’s city centre developments. Lewis Biggs

Project Credits Courtesy the artists Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art International Exhibition 2002 With support from: Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen e.V., Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes Manchetser and Northwest Development Agency. With support and permission from: Vicky Havard, English Partnerships; Property Services, Liverpool City Council; Graham Marshall & Chris Prescott, Liverpool Vision Railtrack, First North Western and Virgin Trains With thanks to: Galerie Voges + Deisen, Frankfurt/Main.