Project management: Klaus Werner, Project management: Josef Filipp
Monument of the Battle of the Nations Leipzig
The balancing act between art and ideal is well known in this country. The conclusion was that a socialist world morality decorated with art had only itself as its object. Jenny Holzer meets this danger with precision and unconditional publicity. Even where her texts surprise, the goals remain free. In an interview, Christian Kümmerling called her messages against violence, abuse of power and rape “Holy Scripture of Contemporary Art” – probably not without irony. As conclusion remains: Art is taking place on the street again, especially where one does not expect it and where it hurts. Jenny Holzer was fascinated and frightened by the monumentality of the Leipzig monument (erected in 1913 in memory of the victory over Napoleon in 1813 at the gates of Leipzig, total weight 300,000 tons, height 91 meters). In its patriotic lamentation of the dead, it is strangely without a history of its own. Leftist and rightist societies helped themselves at will.