Mo Edoga

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Mo Edoga (* 1952 in Nigeria ; † June 17, 2014 in Mannheim ) was a Nigerian doctor and installation artist .

Career and work

He studied medicine in Heidelberg and practiced as a neurosurgeon in Johannesburg , South Africa. From 1982 he lived in Mannheim and had a studio on Friesenheimer Insel .

Mannheim celestial sphere on Carl-Reiss-Platz in Mannheim (2005)
Mannheim celestial sphere (2014)
Connected with plastic straps
Mannheim celestial sphere (2017). Already very badly deteriorated.

After the receding of the flood of the century in the Rhine and Neckar rivers (1988), he began collecting driftwood and processing it into works of art. This is how his first sensational work (homage to) father Rhine and mother Neckar was created , a tower-like sculpture whose load-bearing parts consist of driftwood. All sorts of other found objects (for example plastic parts of all kinds) are integrated into the work.

In the following work, Edoga remained true to the basic principle of father Rhein and mother Neckar : the driftwood was never screwed or nailed, but only connected to each other with plastic straps (e.g. with cable ties ). He called the ribbons “Ariadne's threads of world history” and used them to build not only towers but also “non-Euclidean spheres”.

In 1992 Mo Edoga was a participant in documenta IX in Kassel . In a public square he collected lumber and driftwood from nearby Fulda and set up the signal tower of hope for the duration of the exhibition . The visitor was able to follow the change in the work of art during the exhibition and discuss it with the artist.

On May 15, 2015, the Mannheimer Morgen or the newspaper's online portal stated that Edoga's work "Himmelskugel" (Mannheim, Carl-Reiss-Platz) was allegedly endangered. Represent danger of collapse and therefore "... to transform into a new state ...". "The city is challenged and at risk!" This is where Dr. Rainer Preusche, honorary chairman of the art association.

After a conversation between representatives of the Kunstverein Mannheim and the artist's family, the dismantling plans were put aside for the time being. It is "unanimous opinion that impermanence belongs to the work as an art element and that Mo Edoga would have liked the way the work is now developing".

Exhibitions

  • 1992 documenta 9 on Friedrichsplatz in Kassel
  • Kunsthalle Berlin 1998
  • Sculpture Father Rhine and Mother Neckar in Mannheim, Scheidthorststrasse (Friesenheimer Insel)

Web links

Commons : Mo Edoga  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.morgenweb.de: documenta artist Mo Edoga dies: he built the signal tower of hope. dated July 2, 2014 (accessed July 3, 2014).
  2. ↑ http://www.morgenweb.de/mannheim/mannheim-stadt/die-himmelskugel-soll-weg-1.2244433
  3. ↑ http://www.morgenweb.de/mannheim/mannheim-stadt/himmelskugel-bleibt-vorerst-1.2309288
personal data
SURNAME Edoga, Mon.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Nigeria
DATE OF DEATH 17th June 2014
Place of death Mannheim , Germany