Market tables
The market tables are two bronze sculptures by the Swiss sculptor Bettina Eichin from 1986, which have been in the small cloister of the minster in Basel since December 2010 .
History of the sculptures
To mark the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1886, the chemical and pharmaceutical company Sandoz wanted to give the city of Basel, where it was based, a gift and ordered a fountain made of Jurassic limestone and two sculptures from the sculptor Bettina Eichin. They should be completed in 1986 and handed over to the city and find their place on the market square in front of the town hall . The artist was to receive a fee of more than 100,000 francs.
Eichin intended, as agreed with the client, to create two market tables as bronze casts: a sales table filled with fruit and vegetables, as can be found on the market square, and the second, based on the city hall opposite, equipped with paper, Folders and scrolls. After the first table was ready, on November 1, 1986 at Sandoz there was a devastating fire on the industrial area Schweizerhalle near Basel, with devastating consequences for the environment. Eichin decided to change her sculpture concept and to respond to the fire disaster when designing the second market table. However, this seemed unreasonable to the representatives of the group, the group then withdrew its order from Eichin and obtained a replacement gift for the city. The city of Basel had to assure that Bettina Eichin's work would not be placed in the intended location. The agreed fee was not paid. The artist decided to finish the artwork at her own risk.
Bettina Eichin's new design idea for the second table, which she called tabula rasa , consisted of the engraved date of the disaster - November 1, 1986 - and the also engraved poem "Die Vergänlichkeit" by Johann Peter Hebel from 1803. For the sculptures found There was no location for a long time, until the end of November 1991 the Evangelical Reformed Church of Basel-Stadt granted “asylum” in the cloister of the cathedral, initially limited to a maximum of five years, provided that the church would not incur any costs.
While the production costs of the sculptures were at least partially covered in 1989 with the help of the private association Ökostadt Basel (the casting costs alone amounted to 85,000 francs), the association Markttische im Kreuzgang was founded in 2007 , in which Lieselotte Reber-Liebrich, the long-time president of the Basel Levering Foundation, was founded , the former master builder Peter Burckhardt and other prominent personalities worked. The association's plan was to use donations to buy the artist's sculptures, which in 2007 were still on loan in the Münster. He also ensured that the due renovation and permanent maintenance costs were secured and, above all, that the temporary accommodation of the sculptures in the cloister was converted to a permanent location.
During a ceremony on December 1, 2010, Eichin officially presented the artwork to the city of Basel. This gave the group of sculptures, which had been temporarily housed, its final location in the Münster.
The modified table dedicated to the disaster
Lever poem on the changed table, fragment, with date of the disaster
Skull on a Basel drum that is next to the table
meaning
«Nothing is reminiscent of the near-death experience of an entire region. The cultural workers also quickly forgot. Only the 'market tables' by the artist Bettina Eichin in the cloister of Basel Minster remind of this, ”said Philipp Probst in 2011 in the Infosperber . The keynote address given by history professor Regina Wecker at the ceremonial handover of the sculptures to the city of Basel on December 1, 2010, criticized the fact that both young and immigrant people from Basel “know almost nothing about the Swiss Hall” ”.
The fact that Eichin designed one of the tables with a quote from Hebel, whose 250th birthday was in 2010, and that the various Hebel associations (such as the Basel Lever Foundation) were committed to the sculptures, contributed to the fact that outside of Switzerland too there was a report on the market tables (for example in connection with the Lörrach lever band ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Annette Mahro: Sculpture receives the right to stay without a deadline , in: Badische Zeitung , December 3, 2010, online at: badische-zeitung.de/…
- ↑ a b c d Peter Knechtli : The "market tables" now belong to the Basel population , in: OnlineReports , December 1, 2010, online at: onlinereports.ch/Gesellschaft/…
- ↑ a b Christian Düblin: Monthly Interview December: Bettina Eichin , Platform Xecutives.net, 2010, online at: xecutives.net/…
- ↑ a b Peter Knechtli : Münster cloister is to become the final home of the Eichin tables , in: OnlineReports , October 26, 2007, online at: onlinereports.ch/Kultur/…
- ↑ Philipp Probst: The largest art happening in Switzerland , Infosperber , October 21, 2011, online at: infosperber.ch/…
- ↑ Nikolaus Trenz: The Hebel anniversary 2010 firmly in view , in: Südkurier , March 7, 2008, online at: suedkurier.de/…