Thursday, March 19, 2009

ART COLOGNE



his year's ART COLOGNE will welcome its visitors with a very special presentation. In the entry area of the fair, visitors will see selected top-class sculptures that will give them an impression of the general situation of the current art market and of the 43rd staging of the largest art fair in Germany.

All together thirteen works will greet the visitors in the entrance hall of ART COLOGNE and in the outdoor area around the building, thus acting as representative images of the event.

Visitors will first see relatively traditional sculptures by artists such as Bernar Venet (*1941) and Paul Schwer (*1951) as they approach the entrance door, then encounter a sculpture of the fallen Icarus by Stephan Balkenhol (*1957), a work that speaks for itself and for our time. As they step into the entrance hall, they will be confronted by a confusing group of signs created by Claus Richter (*1971) that point out a wide range of directions they can take in their thinking as well as their tours of the fair. After passing a catwalk created by Kalaman (*1966) which the artist himself will animate at the opening of the fair, they will once again approach sculptures reflecting a more classic style. They'll have to walk across a space that is shared by several abstract sculptures by Jan Scharellmann (*1975) before arriving at works by masters of modern sculpture such as Tony Cragg (*1949), Keith Sonnier (*1941) and Daniel Spoerri (*1930). On the outskirts of this exhibition they'll be surprised by a subtle comment in sculptural form by Damien Roach (*1980) before they reach the entrance gates of the exhibition area proper. But as the visitors move toward the main exhibition halls, two further contemporary sculptures will be waiting to accompany them to the fair. Florian Baudrexel (*1968) lends a new dimension to the traditional concept of a relief sculpture, and Bas de Wit (*1977) presents figurative sculpture from his own idiosyncratic point of view. This mixture of works from diverse areas of the sculptor's art reflects the broad range of themes and approaches in the contemporary art market. Through this sculpture project, ART COLOGNE 2009 directs visitors' attention to past, present and future approaches to art and encourages them to reconsider their own ideas about art as they contemplate the individual works.

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