Lead, sand, 4 texts on Perspex
Circa 41,5 x 31 x 5,5cm
1994, 15 editions
Photo: Rolf Sturm
Kalkriese
[1-2] The search for the scene of the Battle of Varus left a large trench behind it. Whether this is the scene or not, the importance of the finds led one to thematically preserve and reassess the cleft particularly in the sense of it's effect and meaning down the centuries in relation to modern times. This was the starting point for the artistic study.
Sealed within a lead container there are four texts and soil. The soil was excavated from the original archaeological site.
Lead
The material lead builds the protective coat, the solid shell. The contents of the "container" are protected but not just in the sense from outside but also from being forgotten.
Text Block
The choice of text is naturally subjective. But they should stand for the various meanings and also the passing on of the events that happened at that time.
The Roman historian, Tacitus, reported from the scene of the Tutenburg Forrest in his annals in the year 89 AD. This forms the basis for the speculation of the whereabouts of the battle.
Down through the centuries the hero Hermann, the liberator of Germania, has been exalted to a mythological centre point of German Nationalism. This view is plain to see in its literary treatment, for example in the ode from Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock.
Heinrich Heine ironically attacks this type of nationalism in his writings.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, in his book "Die große Wanderung. 33 Markierungen", deals with the important phenomenon of migration, which today in the public eye is discussed under the terms of the alien problem and asylum. The question of Nationality has, again, gained a strong attraction. Here lies the concept of the instrumentalizing and the mythologizing of the Hermann figure.
The text is printed on transparent platters and laid on top of each other. The text therefore, merges and which, in turn, leads an intellectual challenge.
Earth
In the background is visible the earth in which the traces of the events of the year 9 AD were found and due to this study are once again pertinent.
DP. Part of the documentation to the 1st prize of the Osnabrück District art competition "Kalkriese". 1994