KölnSkulptur #11: Body Manoeuvres

Gardens or parks like the Skulpturenpark Köln are carefully organised sections of nature in which forms, rhythms and colours form a harmonious yet contrasting and stylistically varying whole by means of elements like trees, shrubs, stones and lawns. Visitors are led along paths to experience a balanced place, rich in details, unfolding in time and space. Nuances of seasonally changing atmospheres are captured in the interplay of light and shadow.

This forms the background for the 11th edition of KölnSkulptur, along with the park’s permanently installed sculptures and buildings, which have coalesced into a whole over the years. The presentation marks a range of positions between the monumental and the ephemeral, and in doing so takes important developments in contemporary art into account. We encounter globally relevant issues such as technological developments in the area of artificial intelligence, the impact of climate change, current challenges faced by democratic institutions or the rise of new economies in works specially made for KölnSkulptur by eight contemporary artists. In different ways they reflect and formulate approaches to art, nature and the future at a time of global uncertainty and crisis.

The urban setting is an obvious starting point for artistic work processes. It is perceived as a place of social interaction in which people, time and the particular characteristics of the location combine in an essential way with the experience of open-air sculptures. Here, where environmental effects can be experienced very directly by each individual – more so than in the enclosed, sheltered spaces of a museum, for example – the impact of various natural, cultural and social forces on the body becomes the overall theme of the exhibition.

The invited artists direct their gaze outward in an invitation, through their objects and proposals, to experience art as a kind of fertile ground for experimenting with boundaries that also show up the fragility and vulnerability of every organism. Their works are based on the understanding that the world as we know it is being fundamentally changed by science and technology. This in turn influences what it means to be human and how the conditions of a body might appear in the context of human capital. The works reflect transformations within cultural narratives, particularly how historical processes and individual recollection affect the body and the collective memory.

The body should not therefore be considered solely in its biological self-evidence; as a central social ‘organ’ it refers both to naturalness and to artificiality, and it also has a fictional character as the abstraction of various social narratives and realities. Many of the sculptures extend the conventional definition of their medium as a permanent fixed form and presence in space and time by going beyond the usual standard of a self-contained body and sometimes incorporating unusual materials. They range from the subtle to the colossal, from scattered to monolithic, from performative hybrid forms to the medium of film.

In most cases the on-site circumstances are taken into consideration, as in Insides, by Marte Eknæs. This work presents a system integrated into an existing hole in the sculpture park. Recycled building materials recreate a kind of open torso with its specific organs, and at the same time imagine it as the continuum of an otherwise hidden urban infrastructure. Peter Wächtler responds to the sculptural representations found in the vicinity, mostly on the (rather bleak) squares in front of public buildings, with a bronze sculpture positioned between figuration and disembodied abstraction. It chafes at images of the body that reflect the political and social life of past eras, but the direction to be taken in response to imminent changes remains unclear: flight or paralysis?

As well as these pieces, the exhibition also presents new sculptures by Olga Balema, Julian Göthe, Judith Hopf, Paulina Olowska, Georgia Sagri and Frances Scholz, all of whom attempt to locate the body in the materiality of their works, and to materialise it as a means to negotiate an individual position in relation to the surrounding landscape. Through deft manoeuvres requiring a (controlled) alteration in movement or direction they open up new ways of seeing the human body and its relationship to the world.

Nikola Dietrich
Curator KölnSkulptur #11

New positions in this exhibition

Olga Balema

*1984 in Lviv/Ukraine, lives and works in New York/USA

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 11
Marte Eknæs

*1978 in Elverum/Norway, lives and works in Berlin and Stange/Norway
www.marteeknaes.info

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 11
Julian Göthe

*1966 in Berlin/Germany, lives and works in Berlin.

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 11
Judith Hopf

*1969 in Karlsruhe/Germany, lives and works in Berlin/Germany.
www.judithhopf.com

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 11
Paulina Olowska

*1976 in Gdansk/Poland

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 11
Georgia Sagri

*1979 in Athens/Greece
https://georgiasagri.com

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 11
Frances Scholz

*1962 in Washington DC/USA

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 11
Peter Wächtler

*1979 in Hannover/Germany, lives and works in Brussels/Belgium

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 11

Stock positions

Mary Bauermeister

* September 7, 1934 in Frankfurt am Main; † March 2, 2023 in Bergisch Gladbach

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 10, 11
Tom Burr

*1963 in New Haven/USA

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 8, 10, 11
James Lee Byars

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

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Nina Canell

*1979 in Växjö/Sweden
www.canellwatkins.org

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Edith Dekyndt

*June 14, 1960 in Ypres/Belgium
https://edithdekyndt.be

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 8, 9, 10, 11
Bogomir Ecker

* May 29, 1950 in Maribor, Yugoslavia
www.bogomirecker.de

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Ayşe Erkmen

*1949 in Istanbul/Turkey
www.ayseerkmen.com

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 10, 11
Fischli/Weiss

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

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Sou Fujimoto

*August 4, 1971 in Hokkaidō/Japan
http://www.sou-fujimoto.net

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Dan Graham

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

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Lena Henke

*1982 in Warburg/Germany

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Jenny Holzer

*July 29, 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio/USA

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Leiko Ikemura

*August 22, 1951 in Tsu/Japan

https://leiko.info

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Anish Kapoor

*March 12, 1954 in Mumbai/India

www.anishkapoor.com

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Stefan Kern

*1966 in Hamburg/Germany

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Hubert Kiecol

*October 26, 1950 in Bremen-Blumenthal/Germany

http://www.hubert-kiecol.de

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Klara Lidén

*1979 in Stockholm/Sweden

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Dane Mitchell

*1974 Aotearoa/New Zealand

https://www.danemitchell.co.nz

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 10, 11
Jorge Pardo

*1963 in Havana/Cuba

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Mandla Reuter

*1975 in Nqutu/South Africa

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 6, 11
Ulrich Rückriem

*September 30, 1938 in Düsseldorf/Germany

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Michael Sailstorfer

*January 12, 1979 in Velden/Germany

https://sailstorfer.com

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Karin Sander

*1957 in Bensberg/Germany

https://www.karinsander.de

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 7, 9, 10, 11
Thomas Schütte

*16 November 1954 in Oldenburg/Germany

www.thomas-schuette.de

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Andreas Slominski

*1959 in Meppen/Germany

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Mauro Staccioli

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

https://maurostaccioli.org/

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Mark di Suvero

*18 September 1933 in Shanghai/China

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Rosemarie Trockel

*13 November 1952 in Schwerte/Germany

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 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

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Bernar Venet

*20 April 1941 in Château-Arnoux/France
www.bernarvenet.com

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Bernard Voïta

*2 June 1960 in Cully/Switzerland

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 6, 8, 9, 10, 11
Paul Wallach

*1960 in New York/USA

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Lois Weinberger

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

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 8, 9, 10, 11
Martin Willing

*1958 in Bocholt/Germany

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11
Trevor Yeung

*1988 in Guangdong/China

https://trevoryeung.net

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 10, 11
Heimo Zobernig

*30 April 1958 in Mauthen/Austria
www.heimozobernig.com

Participant of KölnSkulptur # 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

General Map

Here you can download the map of KölnSkulptur #11, which gives you an overview of all the works on display.

KölnSkulptur #11 is sponsored by: