ÜberNatur – Natural Takeover

The Skulpturenpark Köln is a unique exhibition venue featuring loaned works from past KölnSkulptur exhibitions, interspersed with the permanent collection amassed by Dr Michael and Dr Eleonore Stoffel. Every two years, a curator is invited to add new artworks to this constellation of outdoor sculpture. Most of the works shown at KölnSkulptur have been commissioned especially for the exhibition. The Skulpturenpark Köln is thus a unique hybrid of permanent display and temporary group exhibition.
ÜberNatur – Natural Takeover marks the 10th iteration of the biannual KölnSkulptur exhibition of contemporary outdoor sculpture. Eight new works have been added to the Skulpturenpark Köln this year. Inspired by the location of the public park – wedged between the Rhine, the Cologne Zoo, the Flora and the adjacent Botanical Garden artworks have been commissioned or selected that engage with notions of nature and initiate dialogue with the natural environment.
Spur (2015) by Lois Weinberger can be read as the lodestar around which this year’s exhibition revolves. Commissioned for KölnSkulptur #8, it is a sixty-metre-long shallow trench cut into the ground. It has slowly developed to become a ‘ruderal community’, a living constellation of invasive weeds and a few furtive animals, which have made their home on the rough terrain. This ‘wilderness’ of weeds, a disruptive intervention in the public park, interrogates the connections between planning and planting and between idea(l)s of ‘nature’ and nature itself. This oscillation between the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’ – in effect a destabilisation of the two contrasting terms, which are already blurry and shifting – was a determining feature in the choice of which artworks to commission for KölnSkulptur #10. This year’s exhibition accentuates the ‘park’ in Skulpturenpark, emphasising not only its physical location, but also wider growing concerns about humanity’s place within a larger ecology – a communal ecology, in which humans, animals and plants co-exist in various constellations, all faced with the threat of climate change and ecological crisis.
KölnSkulptur #10 opens amid a devastating global pandemic, triggered by a rare spillover of a virus from wild animals to humans. Facilitated by ever-closer connections between disparate parts of the world as a result of globalisation, the virus has rampaged like wildfire across the planet, infecting millions of people.
The ‘new normal’ created by this global pandemic is causing us to view the world from novel perspectives; art and exhibitions of art are not exempt from such new interrogations. It is now of the utmost urgency that we raise awareness of the network of interconnections between striving for economic growth and globalisation and the devastating impact these can have on our natural environment. At the same time, we must not forget the visionary power of art and its ability to forge new ideas and sense-forms – not to mention its ability to refer to the ineffable beyond the relentless logic of utility and human efficiency.
Size does not define the significance of sculptural work. Sometimes small gestures can have a large impact, as can be seen in the current pandemic. Some of the works shown at KölnSkulptur #10 diverge from the expected scale of outdoor sculpture. Smaller and often barely perceptible pieces allow visitors to engage with the world at a microcosmic level, but also to widen their focus out to the larger, more unpredictable, macrocosm, in which we live.
ÜberNatur – Natural Takeover questions the monumentality of outdoor sculptures. The exhibition thus oscillates between the smallest work by Ayşe Erkmen and the largest by Dane Mitchell. Erkmen’s contribution consists of a replica of Lonely George, a Hawaiian tree snail, the last of its species, which died in 2019 after scientists spent fourteen years unsuccessfully trying to find it a mate. Mitchell’s work features two artificial trees designed to camouflage mobile data antennae and surveillance equipment, originally mass-produced in China. This piece has been imported for KölnSkulptur #10 from last year’s Venice Biennale, where it was exhibited in the context of New Zealand’s national pavilion.
At KölnSkulptur #10, visitors will encounter works that touch upon fundamental issues of birth, emergence, growth and decay, works that address both the microcosmic and macrocosmic levels of existence and that weave together diverse viewpoints to create complex connections – allowing us to sense and think with, and beyond, nature.
The crux of today’s ‘new normal’ is the need for communication, understanding and negotiation. Mary Bauermeister’s sculpture, Rübezahl, should, therefore, be read as the nucleus of KölnSkulptur #10. It offers visitors a place to sit and somewhere to reflect and contemplate. It opens up a space where taking one’s time and care and attentiveness have value, a space where nature can take hold.

Tobias Berger
Curator of the exhibition KölnSkulptur #10

Stock positions from previous exhibitions:

Tom Burr

*1963 in New Haven/USA, lives and works in New York and Connecticut/USA

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 8, 9, 10, 11
James Lee Byars

*April 10, 1932 in Detroit/USA; †May 23, 1997 in Cairo/Egypt

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Nina Canell

*1979 in Växjö/Sweden

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Edith Dekyndt

*June 14, 1960 in Ypres/Belgium, lives and works in Tournai/Belgium and Berlin/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 8, 9, 10, 11
Bogomir Ecker

*May 29, 1950 in Maribor, Slovenia

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Fischli/Weiss

Peter Fischli
*June 8, 1952 in Zurich/Switzerland
David Weiss
*June 21, 1946 in Zurich/Switzerland, †April 27, 2012 ibid.

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Sou Fujimoto

*August 4, 1971 in Hokkaidō/Japan

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Dan Graham

*March 31, 1942 in Urbana, Illinois/USA; † February 19, 2022 in New York/USA

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Lena Henke

*1982 in Warburg/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Jenny Holzer

*July 29, 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio/USA

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Leiko Ikemura

*August 22, 1951 in Tsu/Japan

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Anish Kapoor

*March 12, 1954 in Mumbai/India

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Stefan Kern

*1966 in Hamburg/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Hubert Kiecol

*October 26, 1950 in Bremen-Blumenthal/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Per Kirkeby

*September 1, 1938 in Copenhagen/Denmark; †May 9, 2018 ibid.

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 1, 7, 8, 9, 10

Per Kirkeby: Læsø-Kopf II, 1983
Aluminum, concrete, beer tables, and beer benches
Courtesy of Galerie Nagel Draxler, Cologne / Berlin / Munich · © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2024, Stiftung Skulpturenpark Köln, 2024

Klara Lidén

*1979 in Stockholm/Sweden

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Jorge Pardo

*1963 in Havana/Cuba

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Mandla Reuter

*1975 in Nqutu/South Africa

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Ulrich Rückriem

*September 30, 1938 in Düsseldorf/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Michael Sailstorfer

*January 12, 1979 in Velden/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Karin Sander

*1957 in Bensberg/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Thomas Schütte

*16 November 1954 in Oldenburg/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Joel Shapiro

*1941 in New York/USA

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Joel Shapiro: Untitled, 1996/1999
Aluminum, concrete, beer tables, and beer benches
Courtesy of Galerie Nagel Draxler, Cologne / Berlin / Munich · © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2024, Stiftung Skulpturenpark Köln, 2024

Andreas Slominski

*1959 in Meppen/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Mauro Staccioli

*February 11, 1937 in Volterra/Italy; †January 1, 2018 in Milan/Italy

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Mark di Suvero

*18 September 1933 in Shanghai/China

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Rosemarie Trockel

*13 November 1952 in Schwerte/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Simon Ungers

*8 May 1957 in Cologne/Germany; †6 March 2006 in Hürth/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Bernar Venet

*20 April 1941 in Château-Arnoux/France

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Bernard Voïta

*2 June 1960 in Cully/Switzerland

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Paul Wallach

*1960 in New York/USA, lives and works in Paris/France

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Lois Weinberger

*24 September 1947 in Stams/Austria; †21 April 2020 in Vienna/Austria

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 8, 9, 10, 11
Martin Willing

*1958 in Bocholt/Germany

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Heimo Zobernig

*30 April 1958 in Mauthen/Austria

Paraticipants in KölnSkulptur #10: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

KölnSkulptur #10
ÜberNatur – Natural Takeover
Tobias Berger und Stiftung Skulpturenpark Köln (Hg.)
Vorwort von Boris und Susanne Stoffel
Einleitung von Tobias Berger
Texte von Tobias Berger, Anna Czerlitzki und Daniel Falb
156 Seiten
Deutsch / English
ISBN 978-3-96098-639-3