In autumn 2018 it caused a sensation in Reithofen, later in Munich and Unterammergau.
Now the spatial and sound sculpture with the name "Sichting" - consecutively numbered as "Sichting IV" - has gone on a journey again.
Reithofen / Flossenbürg - You can see the 32 meter high steel construction in the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial in the Upper Palatinate Forest.
In 2018, architect Hildegard Rasthofer (54) and blacksmith and metalworker Christian Neumaier (56) presented their sensational large-scale sculpture under the title "Sichting I" for the first time in their home town of Reithofen.
The work, described by the artist duo as a spatial and sound sculpture, was made in the workshop of Metallbau Neumaier in Forstern.
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The artists in their work of art: Hildegard Rasthofer and Christian Neumaier at the premiere of "Sichting I" in 2018 in Reithofen.
© Henry Dinger
It consists of 13 stacked steel cubes, weighs more than 70 tons, is a good 32 meters high and can be accessed inside via a continuous staircase.
"Two diagonally opposite incisions from floor to ceiling in each cube reveal a view of the outside," explains Ralph Drechsel, who takes care of the two artists' public relations.
"Sighting": Each visitor leaves a specific sound pattern
Inside the sculpture there are 156 steel steps to climb.
The steps then sound different for each person - "depending on the intensity of movement, vibration, temperature, pressure, material tension and the location of the visitors within the sculpture, the sound changes," the artists describe.
Each visitor leaves behind a specific sound pattern - a sound trail.
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"Sichting IV" provides a view of the castle ruins of Flossenbürg as well as the former concentration camp quarry, in which the prisoners had to do forced labor under inhumane conditions.
© Christian Neumaier
Although the sculpture is so big and heavy, it can go on a journey.
Rasthofer and Neumaier have already shown them at various locations.
As “Sichting II” the object was in Munich in 2019 in the creative quarter there, after which it moved to Unterammergau, where in 2020 it became a permanent part of the collection of the mSE Kunsthalle, an institution of the entrepreneur and art collector Christian Zott.
Since the weekend of Pentecost, the work can now be seen in Flossenbürg in the Upper Palatinate Forest.
It is shown there by the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial on the edge of a quarry that is to become part of the memorial in the near future.
The sculpture allows a view of him, but also of the castle ruins of Flossenbürg and the Upper Palatinate landscape.
For the first time, "Sichting IV" is not exposed in an open area
“For us, 'Sighting IV' is the most artistically complex position of the sculpture to date.
The importance of Flossenbürg as a European place of remembrance, the special geographical and topographical location, the history of the granite, all of this occupied us intensively during our visits, ”say Neumaier and Rasthofer and explain:“ For the first time, the sculpture will not be classified as 'Sighting IV' to be exposed in an open area, but to hide in the landscape. "
With the help of three semi-trailers and a truck-mounted crane, the parts of the sculpture came from Unterammergau via Forstern to Flossenbürg.
The temporary art installation was set up there within two days.
It will be on view throughout the summer before returning to the mSE Kunsthalle in Ammertal in late autumn.
Further information on the sculpture and the artists is available at www.sichtung.info.
Information about the mSE Kunsthalle can be found at www.mse-kunsthalle.de.
Information on the Flossenbürg Memorial is available at www.gedenkstaette-flossenbuerg.de.
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