They came to stay:
The skulptur projekte münster 07
After the turmoil at the Venice Biennale, the Art Basel, and
the documenta, the opening of the skulptur projekte in
Munster formed the finale of this year’s "Grand Tour" for art lovers
throughout all of Europe. On view is a work by Isa Genzken, sponsored by
Deutsche Bank. Every ten years, the long-term project demonstrates how the
concept of sculpture in public space has changed, transforming the
picturesque Westphalian city into an international laboratory for art. But
how do the participants react to the increasing commercialization and
privatization of public space? Silke Hohmann hopped on a bike and
had a look around Munster.
Andreas
Siekmann:
Trickle Down. Public
Space in the Age of Its Privatization
Photo:
Roman Mensing/sp07
Almost as an
afterthought, Kasper König's skulptur
projekte are also an exhibition about time. The show takes place
every ten years in Munster, and over the past four decades, it's not only
the city that's changed measurably, but the art as well. The widely spaced
cycle also acts as an antidote to the crazed fair and biennial business,
where global events follow seamlessly upon one another. And the
approximately thirty works, most of which have been made to stay, have to
face up to duration.
Bruce
Nauman
Square Depression
Photo:
Arendt Mensing/sp07
Bruce
Nauman’s inverted pyramid Square Depression, situated
near the university grounds, should have been made in 1977. Although the
square crater leading several meters down into the ground was realized
thirty years later, it seems as though it’s always been there. It’s brand
new, but you can still somewhat see that time has passed.
Munster
07 shows how the concept of sculpture in public space has changed
since the open-air exhibition was first established: for Claes
Oldenburg and Donald
Judd, who in the past built their geometric exercises in the
landscape, it was a matter of radical self-assertion, of the artist’s
right to express himself outside of the museum. In 2007, this battle has
long since been played out – and, in the end, lost: to the superior power
of Berlin’s Buddy Bears,
Zurich’s cows,
and Frankfurt’s Euros that populate the cities as a matter of course,
without the general agreement of the populace, but largely without
protest. And ultimately destroy the hard-won concept of art in public
space with a "hurrah!" in cheery colors.
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Andreas Siekmann:
Trickle
Down. Public Space in the Age of Its Privatization
Photo:
Roman Mensing/sp07
On this theme, Andreas
Siekmann developed one of the most intelligent works of skulptur
projekte 07: he obtained a number of the very same stand-up cows,
horses (Hanover), and frogs (Quakenbrück), shredded them, and rolled them
up into a ball measuring almost three meters in diameter. This
demonstrative junking action initially comes across as a destructive
commentary, but Siekmann takes it further than that. On the resulting
sculpture and additional information elements, he printed pictograms based
on the increase in privatization, for instance security personnel chasing
people that are not potential customers from plazas and streets with
shops. Andreas Siekmann’s works are often didactic, but it’s necessary
here to reveal an important and larger connection: privatization’s
repression of urban life from public space, together with its aesthetic
consequences.
Clemens
von Wedemeyer:
From Across the
Way
Photo: Roman Mensing/sp07
Upon
their arrival in Munster, a film by Clemens
von Wedemeyer playing in the cinema close to the train station puts
visitors in the right mood for the art tour: the 1974-born film artist
chose the public space surrounding the train station as a setting for a
sequence of episodes spanning 24 hours. In the morning, needy individuals
at the charity organization in the station; the foreign woman without a
ticket; the bag left behind on a track; at night, people fearfully
crossing the underpass – von Wedemeyer’s subjective camera sketches an
image of the city that would otherwise remain hidden to the short-term
visitor. He builds in his themes, such as poverty and the security mania,
so realistically that you wonder why he didn’t actually film a documentary
or risk more fiction with his actors, some of whom are homeless from
Munster. Despite this, von Wedemeyer’s film sticks in the mind, and so
becomes a work in public space. It’s to the credit of the curators Kasper
König, Brigitte Franzen, and Carina Plath that they selected von Wedemeyer
– despite his medium, but because of his subject matter.
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