Leaf 2011

Culture- and Conventioncenter Worms, DE

The sculpture, positioned centrally on the forecourt of the new cultural center of the city of Worms, looks like a cloud of mercury escaping the ground. On it is a naturalistically formed linden tree leaf, a disconcerting disturbance.
The starting point for the design is the Nibelungen saga, which is inseparably connected with the city. Siegfried, the tragic hero of the saga, is made almost invulnerable by bathing in the blood of the dragon he has slain. But an autumn wind blows a linden leaf onto Siegfried’s shoulder, which masks a spot from the protective effect of the dragon’s blood. From now on, Siegfried’s shoulder is the hero’s vulnerable spot and ultimately becomes his downfall in the course of an intrigue. This leaf, initially a seemingly innocuous detail of the story, becomes the catalyst of its tragic course, which is ineluctably launched when Siegfried is treacherously murdered.
While the shimmering, organic-technical sculpture can stand for the mythological subject matter of the saga erupting into the urban space, the leaf, as a concrete disturbance, punctures the perfection of the sculpture as it once did invulnerability of Siegfried’s body. The leaf is the blind spot in an otherwise hermetically reflecting surface – the closed form takes on a poetic point of rupture, to which the widest variety of ideas and projections can attach themselves.