"Privatgrün-Stadtgrün - Ein KUNSTspaziergang in Bremen-Schwachhausen, ("An “art walk” through Bremen-Schwachhausen")" 07.09.1997 - 11.10.1997

Julia Drever

"Haarkugeln" ("hairballs")

100 parts, iron, hair, each of one metre height

With the hair of some women friends, artist Julia Drever formed a hundred little hairballs, which she pinned on a hundred rusty iron bars. Arranged together they formed a square shaped ensemble of one metre height. The artwork was placed in the front yard of a hairdressing salon in Georg-Gröning-Straße 122. The connection between the artwork and the hair salon is obvious. With her artwork, the artist breaks with the tradition of the common shop sign. Instead of using a written sign, she used a symbol to draw attention to the hairdressing salon. But there are further levels of meaning in the artist’s concept: On the one hand, the square of hair stele had systematically organized – and serial structures, which located the artwork in the tradition of the abstract and concrete ideas of a sculpture (Das Feld von Haarstelen besaß auf der einen Seite eine systematische und serielle Struktur, die es in die Tradition abstrakt konkreter Konzeptionen der Skulptur stellte.) On the other hand the hairballs were made out of natural material, so the non-representational ensemble can also be interpreted as a group of people of abstract figurativeness.

Fifteen artists from Bremen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bonn, Hamburg and the performance group “Umgangsformen“ from Münster participated in the project “Privatgrün-Stadtgrün – An Art-Walk through Bremen-Schwachhausen“. For four weeks the artists exhibited their artworks in private gardens, front yards and little public squares in Bremen-Schwachhausen, a wealthy area of the city. Bremen art experts preselected the competitors, who then introduced themselves to the residents. In several meetings and in conversation with the residents and the garden owners, the locations and the different artistic concepts were decided. Some artists developed their works on the basis of the genius loci, the topographic circumstances and the spirit of the places. Others referred to European traditions of art and garden design. Preferences for - and aversions against - particular artistic approaches as well as the importance and the freedom of artistic work were publicly discussed. The artworks invited to take a walk around the streets, the squares and gardens of Bremen-Schwachhausen. For a limited period of time, the relationship between the private and the public changed. Participants: Ursula Barwitzki, Dieter Begemann, Susanne Bollenhagen, Andreas Brenne, Julia Drever, Lili Fischer, Anke Friedhoff, Franz Immoos, Rolf Julius, Maren Koll, Jenny Löbert, Ahmad Motiee, Anna Reckmann, Ren Rong, Martin Voßwinkel Performance group "Umgangsformen", Art Academy Münster, tutor group: Lili Fischer: Andreas Brenne, Julia Drever, Anke Friedhoff, Barbara Kraft, Frank Laukötter, Anna Reckmann

Literature

Title: Privatgrün-Stadtgrün - Ein KUNSTspaziergang in Bremen-Schwachhausen

Year: 1997

Publ.: Senator of the Education, Science, Culture and Sports, Bremen 1998

Info: A project of the department „Art in public space“ in association with the local administration Bremen-Schwachhausen, the expert committee Culture and the Department for Foreigners Affairs