Ben Wagin

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(from left to right :) Fritz Köthe , Niranda Jain, Ben Wagin, Peter Jansen and Siegfried Rischar at the Tiergarten S-Bahn station
Ben Wagin in the Linden Tunnel, 1995

Ben Wagin (born Bernhard Wargin on March 25, 1930 in Jastrow , Deutsch Krone district ; died on July 28, 2021 in Berlin ) was a German artist , sculptor , draftsman , designer , action artist , author , typesetter and founder of the artist group “die Tree sponsors ".

Life

Wagin had lived in Berlin since 1957, where he studied at the University of the Arts. As a student he worked, among other things, as an assistant for the sculptor Karl Hartung .

On May 3, 1962, he opened Gallery S in the student Siegmunds Hof. Here he initially exhibited works by Berlin artists, but soon the exhibition rooms of Galerie S advanced to become a nationally and ultimately world-famous address. In May 1966 Wagin published the monthly information poster "Galleries + Museums in Berlin" for the first time. On May 8, 1968 Wagin moved the Galerie S to the Europa-Center . From 1970 he was regularly represented with installations at Art Basel . In October 1976 Wagin founded the Baumpatenverein e. V. , with the aim of promoting the urban quality of life in the city. In the 1970s, he used the Berlin Pavilion in the Hansaviertel for his exhibitions, as well as the orangery of the Charlottenburg Palace and, from 1993 to 1996, the Linden Tunnel next to the Humboldt University . From the mid-1980s to around 2006, Wagin also used the halls of the TU Berlin on Ackerstraße as a studio and exhibition space.

In numerous works / exhibitions as well as other actions Wagin tried to stimulate the viewer to think about the environment changed by humans. In 1975 he initiated one of the first large murals in Berlin, the World Tree I at Siegmunds Hof. In 1985, together with numerous artists, he designed the World Tree II on the track-side fire wall of the Berlin S-Bahn station Savignyplatz . From the 1960s onwards, Wagin planted numerous trees in the entire urban area of ​​Berlin, often together with politicians and cultural workers. To this day, Wagin's trees stand in front of federal ministries, theaters, museums, including the Berliner Ensemble , the Memorial Church and the New National Gallery . In 2005 Wagin launched the “Sonnenboten” and created around 4 million sunflower oases together with schools and communities. Ben Wagin became known nationwide as the “tree sponsor” and planted around 50,000 ginkgo trees from Moscow to Vilshofen .

For years Wagin fought to preserve the Parliament of Trees , which has been a permanent installation in the middle of Berlin's government district since the early 1990s . Parts of the wall designed by Wagin have found their way into the building of the library of the German Bundestag in the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus as the “Wall Memorial of the Bundestag” .

In 2019 there were some efforts to permanently secure the existence of the Parliament of Trees and at the same time the only remaining section of the wall in the city center at the original location: the Berlin Senate Cultural Administration placed the "Parliament" under monument protection in 2017 and in November 2018 the building commission of the parliamentary council of elders decided that Detaching the site from its own portfolio and transferring it to the State of Berlin.

From 2015, he redesigned the Anhalter Garden , a large outdoor area and some halls of the former Anhalter freight yard, right next to the German Museum of Technology , into a nature and art memorial on historical ground. Ben Wagin was a member of the German Association of Artists . Between 1974 and 1987 he took part in the DKB annual exhibitions a total of eight times under the name Ben Wargin .

gallery

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Ben Wagin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see action artist Ben Wagin died
  2. ↑ Report to RBB with date of death
  3. ↑ berlin.de: Baumpatenverein e. V. ( Memento of the original dated November 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on November 18, 2016) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.berlin.de
  4. ↑ http://www.pressestelle.tu-berlin.de/medieninformationen/2007/maerz_nr_51-67/medieninformation_nr_612007/
  5. ↑ Mural "World Tree" at the Tiergarten disappears behind the new building (accessed on July 19, 2018)
  6. ↑ https://www.bundestag.de/mauermahnmal
  7. ↑ Claudius Prößer: Artist Ben Wagin is around 90: Tree sponsor is looking for sponsors . In: The daily newspaper: taz . February 27, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed February 27, 2019]).
  8. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Members "W" / Ben Wagin (accessed on November 18, 2016)
personal data
SURNAME Wagin, Ben
SHORT DESCRIPTION German artist
BIRTH DATE March 25, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Jastrowie , district of Deutsch Krone
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Berlin