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Introducing the Münster art exhibition that’s rarer than a solar eclipse

Skulptur Projekte Münster is an exhibition that only takes place once every decade. And you’re in luck because this year’s edition is still on until October 1st.

Published: 25 August 2017 14:58 CEST
Introducing the Münster art exhibition that's rarer than a solar eclipse
"Cosmic Generator" by Mika Rottenberg at Skulptur Projekte 2017. Photo: Shelley Pascual

For the past several months, tourists from all around the world have been descending upon the chic, bike-friendly university town of Münster, where they can visit installations, sculptures and performances dotted across the city.

The locals don’t mind though. They’re just as keen on seeing all the site-specific works, only they’re able to do so at their leisure at quieter times during the week.

Locals in Münster had no idea the first Skulptur Projekte, founded in 1977, would be such a hit in their city and that every ten years, there’d be an even bigger and better version of the one before it. They also likely didn’t know they’d come to embrace it and take pride in it.

This year's edition includes 35 radical works by artists from 19 different countries. The current exhibition has also expanded this year, including sites for the first time outside of Münster in the nearby city of Marl.

There’s no overarching theme which encompasses all the works, but as a whole they create something like an outdoor sculptural playground that’s not only free, but suitable for adults and children alike.

Ayse Erkmen's installation entitled “On Water.” Photo: Shelley Pascual.

So what sites are a must for you to see?

Definitely Ayse Erkmen’s “On Water,” according to newspaper Westfälische Nachrichten. Erkmen’s work is one the most popular installations featured in the exhibition, probably because of its fun, interactive element. Erkmen set up a bridge that connects two sides of Münster’s Dortmund-Ems canal so that visitors who try their hand at crossing it seem to be walking on water.

Another work that stands out if anything for its sheer size is Pierre Huyghe’s “After a Life Ahead,” in which the artist excavated a former ice rink and ripped apart its concrete floors. The work is described in the Skulptur Projekte catalogue as a “time-based bio-technical system” where the ground is transformed into a “low level hilly landscape.”

An art installation by Pierre Huyghe called “After a Life Ahead.” Photo: DPA.

Thomas Schütte’s “Nuclear Temple” is also a popular choice insofar as it’s become something of a family meeting point. It is made of steel and located where the city’s zoo used to be. And Nicole Eisenman’s installation “Sketch for a Fountain” featuring several figures in the middle of the city’s busy promenade is another well-visited site.

That leaves 31 other works of art you don’t yet know about that are waiting to be discovered.

At the exhibition’s half-way point earlier this month, Westfälische Nachrichten reported that it had already welcomed about 300,000 visitors.

At the opening of the exhibition on June 10th, well-known people in the art world were present, such as Klaus Biesenbach, the director of MoMa in New York City and director of the Tate Gallery in London at the time, Sir Nicholas Serota.

German Culture Minister Monika Grütters was also present at the launch, deeming it a significant cultural event which places Münster decade after decade in the “international spotlight.”

 

#badegesellschaft an der #Promenade. #muenster als teil der #skulpturenprojekte2017 #NicoleEisenman. #sketchforafountain

A post shared by Maria C (@mariareportingms) on Jun 10, 2017 at 12:13am PDT

The budget for this year’s edition totalled €7.7 million.

All of the sites are open to the public daily from 10am to 8pm and on Fridays from 10am to 10pm.

The decennial event also always coincides with another one of Germany’s international art exhibitions, Documenta. Some 200 kilometres away from Münster in Kassel, Documenta features contemporary art and takes place once every five years.

With DPA

ART

African-born director’s new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

One of the rare African-born figures to head a German cultural institution, Bonaventure Ndikung is aiming to highlight post-colonial multiculturalism at a Berlin arts centre with its roots in Western hegemony.

Published: 8 July 2023 10:13 CEST
African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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