The organisers of Sculpture Projects Münster have revealed further details about the artist projects lined up for next year’s public art show in Germany (10 June-1 October). More than 30 works, encompassing sculptures and performance pieces, will be included in the fifth edition of the influential exhibition that takes place every 10 years.
The veteran, Chicago-born artist Michael Smith will set up a fully operational tattoo studio that, he says, will “target a particular demographic: the 65-plus crowd”. Senior citizens can choose from a selection of tattoos designed by current and past Sculpture Projects artists. Smith and invited artist friends will also submit designs. The tattoo parlour, called Not Quite_Underground, will be run by professional tattoo artists based in Münster.
Meanwhile, The Berlin-based art collective Peles Empire will build a sculpture based on buildings destroyed in Münster during the second world war and rebuilt in the 1950s, combining drawings made of the original facades, designs that were never realised and sketches of the present-day building exteriors.
Other artists due to take part include the Romanian dancer Alexandra Pirici who will present a performance piece in Münster town hall based on the 1648 treaty known as the Peace of Westphalia, which brought the Thirty Years War to an end. The organisers add that the Turkish artist Ayse Erkmen plans to connect the two shores of the Münster harbour basin with a “virtually invisible footbridge” made of grids used for landing stages.
Kasper König, the Berlin-based curator who co-founded Sculpture Projects Münster in 1977, is the artistic director of the 2017 edition. His team includes two curators: the independent scholar Britta Peters and Marianne Wagner, the curator of contemporary art at the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster. The main sponsor is the German Federal Culture Foundation which is providing €1m.
