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Richard Serra – “
The Drowned and the Saved” in the former sacristy of St. Kolumba’s Church On 24 February 1997, a day when the clouds brightened, a new chapter was begun in the two-thousand-year-old history of the grounds of the former church St. Kolumba. Even before the first sketches for the new building of the museum to be built upon this site were submitted for the ongoing architectural competition, the symbolic foundation stone of the future purpose of the site was laid by the American sculptor Richard Serra with the installation of his steel sculpture “The Drowned and the Saved”. In the former sacristy of the church which had been destroyed except for the outside walls between 1943 and 1945, the work, which was conceived originally for an exhibition in the synagogue in Stommeln, found its ultimate home in St. Kolumba. The room is located above a crypt filled with remains of the dead who had been buried on the premises since the Middle Ages and who were then exhumed during excavation works in the mid-1970s. The sculpture above refers to all that has been lost in the layers lying below: to those absent, those who have died before us; and in the sculptural balance of carrying, burdening and leaning upon one another, it points out that but for the dead, there would be no living. At the same time it is a reference to the fact, that the museum understands itself as a place of remembering and becoming aware of the past as a historical foundation for the future. “This is a wonderful place” Serra said on this day “small and personal. It can remain open on top, surrounded by the ruins of the former brick walls and Gothic window frames. Thus the sculpture becomes part of the tradition of this town.” The grounds of the museum site will be a focus for the museum during this time, made visible to us in photographs by Ulrich Tillmann who created an extensive artistic documentary in 1994. Also, we will present the outcome of the competition for the new museum building, which consists of 168 entries. |
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Art museum of the archbishopric of Cologne Current Events Architecture Archive Videos History General Information Reviews Publications Essays 02/10 Ash Wednesday 2010 01/10 Renate Köhler 01/10 Georg Baumgarten 11/09 Workshop 09/09 Stefan Wewerka 05/09 Koho Mori-Newton 11/08 Workshop 10/08 Donaueschingen Festival 09/08 Heiner Binding Man Leaving Earth 06/08 Kolumba is singing! 05/08 Katholikentag 04/08 Farewell to JMP 02/08 Alpenhorns 12/07 Deutschlandradio live Infinitive Space Expands 04/07 Art Cologne 10/06 In the Garden of Reality II 04/06 In the Garden of Reality I 04/06 Werner Schriefers 10/05 Leiko Ikemura 10/05 The Egner Donation 08/05 Arma Christi (WYD) 08/05 1st view! (WYD) 05/05 Hans Josephsohn 02/05 Coptic Textiles 02/05 Birgit Antoni - Paintings 12/04 The Pietŕ from St. Kolumba 10/04 Monika Bartholomé 07/04 Heinrich Küpper 04/04 Max Cole 11/03 Cologne Theatre 11/03 Reliquary Crosses 11/03 Daphne-Test 10/03 Martin Frommelt 04/03 150 Years! 12/02 Attila Kovács 09/02 Herbert Falken 06/02 Peter Tollens 12/01 ars vivendi 11/00 Volume 11/00 The Härle Donation 10/00 Children's drawings 04/00 walkmen 04/00 About Reality 10/99 Andor Weininger 06/99 Joseph Marioni 02/99 Andy Warhol 09/98 Infinite Space Expands 08/98 Faith and Knowledge 05/98 Stephan Baumkötter 04/98 Bernd Ikemann 04/98 Reencounter 11 01/98 Hildegard Domizlaff 09/97 Reencounter 10 06/97 Richard Serra 04/97 Manos Tsangaris 03/97 Paul Thek 02/97 Klaus vom Bruch 02/97 About the Site: Kolumba 10/96 About Ambivalence 04/96 Chris Newman 02/96 Peter Tollens 02/96 Wolfgang Laib 02/96 About Colour 12/95 Early Christian Art 12/95 Mischa Kuball 11/95 Palace of Art 10/95 Reencounter 6 09/95 Monika Bartholomé 06/93 Reencounter 1 to 5 10/92 Vaticana |
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