Oculus historiae, oculus memoriae, oculus oblivionis
Oculus historiae, oculus memoriae, oculus Oblivionis is a four-part installation art in Munich district of Schwabing by Anne and Patrick Poirier .
Location and history
The Nordbad and the city archive in Munich-Schwabing are opposite each other on both sides of Schleißheimer Straße . When the city archive was expanded in 1989 with a new wing by Hans-Busso von Busse , the plan was to develop this section of Schleißheimer Straße into an urban square. The ensemble of Anne and Patrick Poirier in front of the north bath and the facade of the city archive was realized in 1990, but not the planned square. Only pavilions that had previously existed on both sides of the Nordbad were replaced by new buildings and the pavement of Schleißheimer Strasse was renovated.
installation
The work of art by Anne and Patrick Poirier consists of four parts.
- Oculus historiae (“Eye of History”): This part of the installation has the shape of an emblem; it is located above the entrance to the city archive. The convex, gold-plated cast aluminum disc bears her title as an inscription; it has a diameter of 1.60 meters.
- “Untitled”: In front of the entrance to the city archives there is a 8.50 meter high stainless steel column on a stone base; it is broken in itself: the seven segments are offset from one another. A tablet resembling an open book rests on the pillar.
- Oculus memoriae ("eye of memory") and Oculus oblivionis ("eye of forgetting"): the two cuboid sculptures made of gray marble are each 1.60 meters wide and long and 2.20 meters high; they flank the entrance of the Nordbad. The left eye area from Michelangelo's " David " (right in front of the entrance, "Oculus memoriae") and the right (left in front of the entrance, "Oculus oblivionis") are shown in oversized enlargement . The sculptures have their title as an inscription on the back.
Oculus historiae and untitled column
Oculus memoriae
Oculus oblivionis
Meaning and relation to the place
The titles of the sculptures make direct reference to the central theme of the Poiriers' work: memory and its relationship to forgetting.
The buildings that the installation binds together are also related to history, memory and oblivion. The city archive due to its current function and the earlier one of its rear, older part of the building as a municipal military office at the beginning of the First World War ; the north bath through the time of its construction during the reign of National Socialism and the then prevailing neoclassical style.
literature
- Doris Angermann: Ensemble “Oculus historiae” . In: Steffi Roettgen (Hrsg.): Sculpture and plastic on Munich's streets and squares. Art in public space 1945–1999 . IDEA-Verlag, Puchheim 2000, ISBN 3-88793-150-5
- Jan Assmann: Crypt - Preserved and suppressed past. Artistic and scientific explorations of cultural memory . In: Bernhard Jussen (ed.): Archeology between imagination and science: Anne and Patrick Poirier . Wallstein, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-89244-347-5
- Helmut Friedel (eds.) And Petra Giloy-Hirtz: Guide to Art for Munich in Public Spaces 1972–1997 . Hugendubel, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-88034-957-6
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 37 ″ N , 11 ° 33 ′ 48 ″ E