Elmgreen & Dragset
A Space Called Public / Hoffentlich Öffentlich
January–September 2013
Munich, Germany
General project opening: June 6, 2013
Inauguration of the first project: January 29, 2013
4th Plinth Munich by Stephen Hall & Li Li Ren
At the invitation of the City of Munich, the Scandinavian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset are curating a wide-ranging temporary art project to take place in the centre of Munich between January and September 2013. The project, titledA Space Called Public / Hoffentlich Öffentlich presents diverse works by twelve artists from different countries with the aim of generating a new conversation about the concept of public space today.
Elmgreen & Dragset decided to develop the project in various phases in Munich’s city centre. Its open structure is designed to take place over many months, creating space for curiosity, discovery and, as in its German title, “hoffentlich” (“hopefully”) the establishment of a burgeoning dialogue with the public as the individual artistic strands evolve together.
A Space Called Public / Hoffentlich Öffentlich will be launched on January 29 with 4th Plinth Munich by Stephen Hall and Li Li Ren, bringing the well known London contemporary art commission to Munich. The project involves the building of a full scale replica of the Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth in the historic square of Wittelsbacherplatz, adjacent to an existing bronze statue of elector Maximilian I on a horse.
“The idea is to create a problem in the form of an empty plinth which generates questions. To disturb the historic order with this intervention will help us to see this space with new eyes,” says Stephen Hall, who in 2011 made the first travelling 4th Plinth, a work called A Tale of Two Cities, in Bermondsey, South London. Since the mid-’90s Stephen Hall (b. 1968, Dublin; lives and works in London) has worked extensively in a devised and collaborative format with various minority social groups exploring the uses and misuses of public space in an urban context. In 2008 Hall founded the experimental art space Cul De Sac London. Stephen Hall & Li Li Ren (b. 1986, Shandong, China; lives and works in London) are an artistic, design and curatorial duo formed in 2012 in London.
Like its famous original in England, 4th Plinth Munich will include an invitation to eight international artists to submit works for a new sculpture. Proposals will be reviewed anonymously by a distinguished jury and the winner will be announced on March 12, 2013. The production and installation of the new work will be completed by June 6, 2013, the opening of A Space Called Public / Hoffentlich Öffentlich.
The opening celebration will take place when all projects are on view and continues as a summer exhibition, presenting works by Ivan Argote, Han Chong, Funda, Martin Kippenberger, Ragnar Kjartansson, Henrik Olesen, Kirsten Pieroth, Ed Ruscha, David Shrigley, Tatiana Trouvé, Peter Weibeland Elmgreen & Dragset a.o.Collaborations with Munich-based institutions and artists will include, among others, projects by students of the Academy of Fine Arts.
Alongside the summer exhibition A Space Called Public / Hoffentlich Öffentlich, which will feature performative, interactive, idea- and sound-based projects and other non-monumental statements, will be a series of public events and talks, hosted by the centrally located City Hall Gallery and other venues in Munich.
The closing event of A Space Called Public at the end of September will include the presentation of an extensive catalogue serving to document and localize current debate over public space and art in the public sphere.
A Space Called Public / Hoffentlich Öffentlich by Elmgreen & Dragset is an artistic project in public space funded by the City of Munich.
For further information please contact:
contact [at] aspacecalledpublic.de
