SCULPTURE PROJECTS MÜNSTER 07
Article from ArtSEEN Journal, Summer 2007
Despite the rain, the slight chill, and perhaps only half a day to view this sculptural event, I remained pleasantly surprised by the high quality of works on view throughout the city center and surrounding areas of Muenster. The fact that only 33 artists were selected for this event also tells me that the motivations behind the show are also very different from those in Venice and Kassel. Here in this small city is an event that happens only every ten years and is by all means worth experiencing.
Sculpture – I have very specific memories of a classmate on my MA course in London getting grilled during a critique. The tutor was attempting to get the point across to my classmate that their work was referencing all to closely sculptural practices from the 1950s. What was interesting to me was that this person’s critique was so much more intense than any of the other students on my course. By the end, however, I wasn’t so much feeling sorry for my fellow student being critiqued as much as I was unnerved that all the other students on the course were getting off so easily. And it was with this thought that I began to see that the tight nit communities that exist in and around sculpture keep the discourse surrounding sculptural practices at an extraordinarily high level.
I suppose I tell this story to illustrate the fact that sculptors have never let the market completely take away their medium from them. And it is indeed their medium. When I look through the various catalogues from Venice and Documenta I see that curators and critics have spilled all sorts of ink over various artists works. Then I open the Muenster catalogue and there is the artist talking about her work and a very well informed critic discussing the work and how it developed. The artist tells the story of how she came to Muenster and experienced the town, looking for just the right place or space or thing in which to confront sculpture in a small urban context. Such an artist is Pae White with her work ‘my-fi, Tacos from Marzipane, 2007’. The tacos made out of marzipan and topped with lemon and radishes make their way into a beautiful café next to other elaborate sweets located just across from an old cathedral. What a marriage between LA and Muenster! One I personally would never have thought possible but this is the real beauty of art. When an artist can talk about love, as White has, and relationships and actually make it work on the streets of a city where she has never lived. It makes all the other overblown political statements of so many naïve artists just look silly, and actually helps the people of one place recognize the qualities of another without being told what to like or dislike about something through advertising.
Naturally the city also invites artists to interpret the definition of sculpture very openly. So after four such events the city begins to reflect those sculptural tendencies. A Donald Judd sculpture is testament to a certain time just as are Claus Oldenberg’s works. One is literally able to see what sculpture has become over the past forty years. There really is a sense that an artist interested in sculpture could come and actually learn about this medium in a way that counts – that is relevant to the practice. And there is no better teacher or school than the work itself. Muenster Sculpture Projects remains for me the ideal of what art can be in today’s world. I would hope, therefore, that people will realize that being selective is sometimes the only real solution to creating an event that has any true significance and resonance for both artists and viewers alike.
Artist: Pae White
Title /Year: Installation view, mi-fi, Sound-installation (detail), (2007)
Media: tacos; marzipan, food colouring; three glockenspiels with new songsCourtesy: N/A
Photo by: ArtSEEN journal
Notes: Sculpture Projects Münster 07
Artist: Hans-Peter Feldmann
Title /Year: Installation view, WC Facilities on the Domplatz (2007)Media: Refurbishment of the public toilets, various materiealsCourtesy: N/A
Photo by: ArtSEEN journal
Notes: Sculpture Projects Münster 07
Artist: Pawel Althamer
Title /Year: Installation view, Path (2007)
Media: Performative installation, lenght circa 1kmCourtesy: N/A
Photo by: ArtSEEN journal
Notes: Sculpture Projects Münster 07
Artist: Susan Philipz
Title /Year: Installation view, The lost reflection (2007)Media: Audio installation under the TorminbrückeCourtesy: N/A
Photo by: ArtSEEN journal
Notes: Sculpture Projects Münster 07