“Magenta Cube” can be considered the heart of the nine interconnected rooms of the series. With its position in the center of the arrangement (see The Idea and Concept behind “Cubes” for more conceptual background information) and the water slowly but surely filling the swimming-pool-like room, it directly affects all adjacent Cubes.

As all other Cubes, the magenta-coloured room posed its own individual challenges when planning and constructing the diorama set. The large amount of water quickly led to the decision of building the whole scenery into an (equally cubic-shaped) aquarium.

After designing the separate parts for the floor, ceiling and further interior, laser cutting was used for precise cuts. Then everything could be glued together and painted accordingly.

There is nothing more exciting – and frightening! – than filling a carefully and meticulously crafted miniature set with 50 litres of water. No pre-testing, no plan B, only one moment of truth. Luckily, everything behaved exactly as planned (well, at least more or less, but let’s not get into such details here now …), so moving on to lighting the set and finally shooting it was a real relief and joy.

Here you can see the final image. For more behind-the-scenes material from the creation of the miniature set, make sure to check my “Making Of”-section.