The Elephant in the Room is a temporary exhibition at the Hamburg Bahnhof that focuses on the resistant materiality and physical impact of sculpture in a space. Each piece in this collection hold factors that, although are not material components of the exhibited pieces, play a significant role in determining their appearance and special impact.
The exhibition is split into 4 sections - memory, the marx collection, body and energy. The memory section featured sculptures by Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Merz. Merz's pieces of geometric wooden pieces against bold coloured backgrounds are supposed to spark the image of the architectural qualities of Italian buildings which the pieces are named of. Kiefer's piece 'Lilith by the Red Sea', featured clothing, particularly dresses, covered in ash which refer to the women and children killed by the mythological Lilith. Kiefer often covers socialist issues in his pieces, which sparks the conversation that the piece also refers to the clothes retained from the victims of the Holocaust in concentration camps.
The second area 'The Marx Collection' related to the gallery itself. The Hamburger Bahnhof was created from an old train station. The gallery holds a unique feel to other galleries, with high ceilings, lots of light and industrial type beams and columns. The sculptures in this section, though plain and geometrical, play into this industrial theme and work well with the space they are displayed in.
'Body' is a celebration of the human form. Each sculpture holds an idea of unity and wholeness. As well as digital art and performance pieces, this section features a large wooden piece by Georg Baselitz that is titled 'Male Torso' but clearly represented a female form with red paint covering the genitalia. This relationship between the sculpture and the title, forms a contradiction which relates to gender fluidity. This section was also home to Marc Quinn's 'shit head'.
The last section was my favourite. 'Energy' was formed from Joseph Beuys concept that materials and objects can hold inherent energy. My favourite piece in this section was Jeff Koons' sculpture 'Two Ball 50/50 tank'. A mix of salt water and distilled water was used in a tank for two basketballs to float on. The water cut the balls at exactly halfway. This piece tackled the contradictions of life, using the basketballs and the water as two potentially forceful elements that produce equally positive energies.
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