Skulpturenpark Köln

By virtue of its positioning in a remote cluster of dark fir trees, the Gartenskulptur by Katharina Fritsch (b. 1956 in Essen, Germany) resembles a graveyard. Assuming a dignified countenance, it is, at the same time however, seemingly possessed of a ghoulish and sinister aspect. This image is a reminiscence of an unforgotten nightmare from her childhood. On a familiar meadow Katharina Fritsch once spotted the abandoned remains of the lower half of a human body, which in her mind's eye was elevated in sculptural form onto a plinth. This origins of this haunting, recurring dream trace back to the x-ray of a human foot which has etched itself indelibly upon Fritsch's memory and which subsequently metamorphosed into an horrific vision. In the Skulpturenpark Köln this work is installed in a natural landscape, redolent of the scenery in which the original vision first appeared. The Gartenskulptur belongs to a series of new works which explore the age-old myth of the garden. At the same time, this Memento mori furnishes proof that certain symbols endure in the memory longer than reality.