Sculpture as unintentional rubbish receptacles
I attended Kasper König’s Skulptur Projekte Münster – 1977–2007 seminar at Leeds Art Gallery yesterday – an animated retrospective of Skulptur Projekte Münster by the project’s co-founder and Director of Museum Ludwig, Cologne. http://www.henry-moore.org/hmi/events/kasper-kanig-skulptur-projekte-manster
Kasper mentioned that one work in the 2007 edition of the 10-yearly was unintentionally used by the public as a receptacle for rubbish:
Guillaume Bijl – Archaeological Site (A Sorry Installation)
Right in the middle of a grassy area on the Sentruper Höhe by Lake Aa with nothing but trees and meadows around, is a milestone of cultural tourism. If the spectator steps a bit closer, he can view the archaeological excavation site from a balustrade guarding the edge of the pit. Standing there, he will see an unearthed, shingle-roofed spire topped by a weathercock. Guillaume Bijl discovered it – or rather, he invented it, as the spectator will quickly have guessed. It is an absurd, surrealist sculpture. With their steeples, the churches of Münster are still an integral part of the urban landscape. Bijl came up with the idea that “somebody could discover another church – one that had fallen victim to the passage of time, buried during the war.”
http://www.skulptur-projekte.de/kuenstler/bijl/?lang=en
The rubbish must have been quite an issue for the Skulptur Projekte Münster.
Kasper mentioned earlier in his talk that the local public in Münster were varyingly ambivalent and antagonistic to some works in the public domain, as is a common issue to consider when dealing with public art.
Does the act of throwing rubbish into Bijl’s Archaeological Site exemplify a casual disregard for the artwork? At historical sites and conservation sites, people also litter so the act is not exclusively symptomatic of public art (dis)engagement and any disregard or irreverence towards it. I think it’s quite common for some people to unthinkingly throw their litter away into any receptacle they happen to be passing at the time they want to dispose of an item, but is there a more subversive gesture at play?
Do you know of any other examples of art being used as an uninvited bin?
