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sculpture@CityNord – Sculptureproject

| The temporary sculpture project at the City Nord, Hamburg (Germany) from 14th May until 24th September 2006.

Initiated by the Grundeigentuemer Interessengemeinschaft City Nord GmbH
Organization: Peter Borchardt
Curator: Rik Reinking

sculpture@CityNord promises to become the event of the Hamburg Art Summer. For the first time, the Grundeigentümer Interessengemeinschaft City Nord GmbH (GIG) have arranged a temporary sculpture project in Hamburg’s City Nord. With In the young curator and collector Rik Reinking and the Hamburg gallerist Peter Borchardt (who specializes in art within the public space) GIG has found two deeply engaged and highly competent partners for the project.

The project is part of the Hamburg Summer of Architecture 2006 and is planned to take place every two years. Due to its high quality, the sculpture project will certainly attract streams of visitors from beyond the region. The Hanseatic City will profit from this art project, especially in World Cup year.Hence, the City Nord explicitly presents itself as a location of art and culture. The project has been classified “the most sophisticated contribution concerning the topic of art within the public space” by the Department of Culture. The Senator of Culture, Karin von Welck, will be present at the opening of the project on 14th May at 11am in City Nord Park. The final event will take place on 24th September. Prof. Lingner of the University of Fine Art will support the project in the form of a seminar and a symposium.

The Artistic Concept
Today, the dynamic Reinking / Borchard art-duo will present a list of artists which promises exciting contributions. About 30 reputable – mainly young – artists take part in the project. This is where young art from Hamburg will meet international stars of the art scene, such as Lawrence Weiner. Most of them have been considerably successful within the art scene. There are those that you would have heard plenty about and those that you will hear just as much about in the future. Reinking is keen to encourage discourse with the most important exponents of previous generations and towards this end explicitly involves them in the project and the debate.At present, there are two artists presenting their works at the Kunsthaus Hamburg. Sonja Vordermaier and Jan Köchermann have received the Hamburg Scholarship for 2005. The works chosen are not just restricted to one art form and comprise single sculptures, groups of sculptures, installations, performances, concerts and video art. There will be huge, impressive contributions, as well as positions that will have to be discovered. Besides sculptural objects, there will be platforms on which -just like on a stage- real-life projects and performances will be realized. There will be some fascinating local interventions such as a disappearing path or a car park that becomes a party lounge. Street lamps turn into candelabra, chairs hang from the sky, trees invite fairies, instruction signs vehemently demand more nonsense. Furthermore, an Expo-Container is to be made available that will be used for exhibitions by about 20 artists, who will take turns to exhibit in a rapid-fire turnaround. There will also be a video-project with various programmes shown at a small cinema space on the +14 Platform, curated especially for this event by some of the absolute insiders of the scene. Almost all core ideas and methodologies deal with the City Nord and its urban development. Most works are produced explicitly for this project. It will be very exciting to see how these artists react to the controversial urban development of the City Nord – a rather peculiar office town that arose in the late Fifties and with its many company headquarters is the workplace for about 30,000 people. You can expect a great deal from Rik Reinking’s work.While discussing the project, the young collector and curator defined the course of sculpture@CityNord: a certain quality of ‘process’, flexibility, experiment and a broadening of the whole concept of sculpture and conceptual art.


Image above: “Die Mauersprengung” | Mirko Reisser (DAIM)
Courtesy: sculpture@CityNord / Galerie Borchardt | Photos © MRpro

Exhibiting artists
Nir Alon, Hermine Anthoine, Rolf Bergmeier, Matthias Berthold, Jimmie Durham, Johannes Esper, Christian Forsen, Till F.E. Haupt, poisen idea, Yoshiaki Kaihatsu, Wulf Kirschner, Jan Köchermann, Volker Lang, George Lappas, Daniel Man, Stefan Panhans, Thorsten Passfeld, Gerrit Peters, Mirko Reisser (DAIM), Ulrich Rückriem, Barbara Schmidt-Heins, Gabriele Schmidt-Heins, Anna Schuster, Rainer Splitt, Sonja Vordermaier, Lawrence Weiner, Winter / Hörbelt.

The makers: “A sculpture gives a face to a site and, thus, an identity. A sculpture represents the ‘extra’ that a commune, patron or employer spends in order to document something special and to take responsibility for a communal living space.”

Supporting Programme
Alongside the opening and closing nights, further special activities are planned, including: artist videos, musical events and a panel discussion with the involved artists and qualified intermediaries.
There will be an information point where people will have the opportunity to book guided tours or rent audio-guides. Art catalogues will be available for browsing and sale. A new café, which offers snacks and drinks, is also planned. The café will be run by Waagenbau (known through the Centralparc in the Schanzenviertel).On 19th May, a Sculpture Run over 3.3 or 10 km will take place. The artist Falk von Traubenberg will present an accompanying photo competition on Platform +14.

Structure of the Project
The project is an exceptional example of a public arts initiative being successfullly realised and financed by the private sector and carried through via the enthusiasm of all people involved. It has been supported and promoted by the local authorities in an extraordinarily cooperative way.

sculpture@CityNord
City Nord Park, New-York-Weg / Überseering Ecke Kapstadt-Ring
22297 Hamburg / Germany

For further information: sculpture-citynord.de

Podcasts
You can visit the sculpture@CityNord exhibition in the City Nord from 14th May – 24th September 2006. It is an exhibition that is concerned with the urbanistic and architectural situation of City Nord.Soundcom GmbH have provided a podcast that is as versatile as the exhibition itself. You can listen to artists like Jimmie Durham or Johannes Esper, alongside employees of the City Nord, as well as examples of art-historical texts and various sound-collages.

Introduction (mp3) – in german language
Rik Reinking on the Concept (mp3) – in german language
City Nord (mp3) – in german language
Mirko Reisser (DAIM) (mp3) – in german language