Raimund Kummer
sculptures in the street, 1978/79

Artist
Raimund Kummer

Title
Sculptures in the Street

Year of creation
1978/79

Technique and dimensions
of the photo sculpture (80 35mm slides)

Year of acquisition
2007

Acquisition of the foundation

Every place has the potential to be a place of art. This is essentially the assertion against which Raimund Kummer's work "Sculpture in the Street" was created. Kummer, who had studied painting at the Berlin University of the Arts in the 1970s, separated from it in the spring of 1979 and based his art on two new principles: "Never paint a panel painting again!" and “Situations on the street can be sculptures.” As a result, more than 500 slides were created within a few months, which he took on his journey through Kreuzberg and other districts of Berlin that were under construction. He photographed construction sites, barriers, half-demolished houses, building materials and equipment, signs and much more. On these tours through Berlin, Kummer's eye for the artistic quality of certain, random arrangements on the street matured.

With the aim of turning everyday places into places of art, Raimund Kummer took a direction that was much discussed in Berlin at the time and for which Berlin's urban landscape was ideally suited.

With this classification of seemingly inconsequential objects and scenes in the field of art, it is obvious to associate Marcel Duchamp's readymades. With his readymades, however, Duchamp placed particular emphasis on presenting the object he had chosen - such as the famous "bottle dryer" - outside of the usual context, for example in an exhibition, and thus practicing institutional criticism. While Duchamp was concerned with a shift in context, Kummer's focus was on the artist's position: he alone decides which scenes in the city are suitable for sculpture and which are not. Instead of shifting the context, it is additionally addressed and allows a new look at the concept of sculpture. When looking at the works, questions inevitably arise about the meaning and purpose of the “sculptures” included.