City of Duisburg rejects art installation by Gregor Schneider for the Ruhrtriennale at the Lehmbruck Museum.
Ruhrtriennale is examining the possibility of realizing a new work at short notice in other cities of the Ruhr region.
The artwork planned for the Ruhrtriennale 2014 by internationally renowned installation artist Gregor Schneider at the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg cannot be realised. Lord Mayor Sören Link informed the Artistic Director of the Ruhrtriennale, Heiner Goebbels, by telephone a short time ago that irrespective of further inspections by the building control office the artwork was not suited to the city at the present time. The artist, the Ruhrtriennale’s artistic team and the Museum are markedly critical of the way in which the matter has been handled.
Since November 2013 there have been regular and constructive conversations between the Ruhrtriennale, museum teams and the building control office and other city authorities in order to determine and plan for all stipulated and necessary safety measures. With a great deal of co-operation on the part of the artist, it was ultimately possible to comply fully with all the building control office’s requirements. The Ruhrtriennale is currently examining the possibility of realising a new work at short notice.
A voluminous accessible sculpture entitled totlast was planned as the first collaboration between the Ruhrtriennale and the Duisburg museum in which visitors could individually enter various spaces in and around the Lehmbruck Museum via tubular entrances. The artist Gregor Schneider (born1969 in Rheydt, Germany) uses constructed rooms to repeatedly change visitors‘ senses of space and location, presenting them in his works with strong personal experiences. His main work, the Haus u r / Totes Haus u r 1985 – heute, is regarded as one of the most significant contemporary installations, for which he was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Biennale.
Press contact:
Hendrik von Boxberg, presse@ruhrtriennale.de, +49 (0)209. 60507 137 / 210, www.ruhrtriennale.de
The Ruhrtriennale receives support from the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and by the European Union – European Regional Development Fund. Proprietors: State of North Rhine-Westphalia and Regional Association Ruhr.