EEN OPENBAAR BAD VOOR MUNSTER

’Kasper König’s Münster Sculpture Project’ is an event held every ten years in Münster, a small city in the Rhine valley both near Cologne and Frankfurt. Münster got catapulted back in 1977, when curator König and Münster museum chief Klaus Bussmann set up a show of public art in the city. It featured nine artists, including Joseph Beuys and American Minimalists (André, Judd, Nauman and Serra), and was greeted as a seminal event. Ten years later the show was repeated, expanded this time to 63 artists, including the original group as well as students of Beuys: Stephan Balkenhol, Lothar Baumgarten, Katharina Fritsch, Isa Genzken and Reinhard Mucha. From the U.S. came figures of the moment: Dennis Adams, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer and Jeff Koons. And from Arte Povera they were joined by Giovanni Anselmo, Luciano Fabro, Mario Merz and Giuseppe Penone. To many people Münster 1987 was a milestone event, marking the coming-of-age of a certain generation of German artists, as well as finally indicating the proper place of conceptual art : outside the museum. Overall, perhaps, the Münster project carries out the Futurist tenet that "the museum is the graveyard of art" and also puts the ideas of 60’s Conceptualism into reality, that is, to move out of the stasis of the museum context into real public space. In the first part of the report the camera team and the spectator are guided through the city by flaneur Christian-Philipp Muller, immediately creating a historic, local and almost physical context around the exhibition, as a collection of souvenirs. The physical dimension is further reinforced by the interventions of dancer Brygida Ochaim, who enters into a dialogue with the artworks. At the same time Cornelis never allows the illusion of television to join in, by visualizing the recording process on a regular basis. The protagonists of the programme come together in a second part, in which screenwriter Chris Dercon interviews the organizers Kasper Konig and Klaus Bussman about the relationship between art and its public.

Original broadcast date: 06/09/1987

Content:
00’00" The dancer Brygida Ochaim beside a work by Luciano Fabro. 00’52" Pictures of the city of Munster. 01’07" Text by Baudelaire. 01’30" Christian Philipp Müller guiding the television crew round the city of Munster, showing them the Skulptur-Projekt exhibition. Christian Philipp Müller in front of Thomas Huber’s sign A public swimming-pool for Munster. 02’56" Title of the report : A public swimming-pool for Munster. 03’04" Brygida Ochaim in a garden next to a sculpture by Harald Klingelhöller. 03’53" Christian Philipp Müller telling the history of the university in a garden next to a work by Siah Armajani, then one by Matt Mullican, and arriving at the university library. 07’50" Brygida Ochaim near a church, dancing round a work by Ulrich Rückriem. 09’15" Christian Philipp Müller next to the ruins of the old prison, telling its history. 12’12" Discussion about the exhibition, near a bus stop. Work by Dennis Adams. 13’04" Work by Michael Asher. 13’19" Christian Philipp Müller next to the headquarters of the Forestry and Agriculture Association. Work by Scott Burton. Christian Philipp Müller walking down the street. Work by Franz West. 16’50" Brygida Ochaim in a park next to a work by Guiseppe Penone. 17’23" Daniel Buren’s contribution, in the daytime and during the evening. Work by Thomas Struth. 18’09" Christian Philipp Müller in a snack-bar. Work by Peter Fischli and David Weiss. 19’40" Sculpture by Thomas Schutte. 20’06" View of traffic going round a square. Work by Rémy Zaugg. 20’24" Christian Philipp Müller in an inner courtyard near a work by Richard Artschwager. Brygida Ochaim kneeling round a work by Reiner Ruthenbeck. 21’34" Christian Philipp Müller in a sweet-shop, work by Jeff Koons, then in a shopping centre, work by Stephan Balkenhol. 24’35" Brygida Ochaim and Christian Philipp Müller in the inner courtyard of Erbdrosten-hof Palace. Work by Richard Serra. 26’50" Brygida Ochaim in the park. Work by François Morellet. 27’50" Christian Philipp Müller in the park near the Munster war memorial. 28’43" Brygida Ochaim and Christian Philipp Müller in the park. Works by Dan Graham and Sol LeWitt. 32’33" Brygida Ochaim in the middle of a work by Ludger Gerdes. 33’13" The television crew, Brygida Ochaim and Christian Philipp Müller in an apartment, speaking about art and advertising. 39’26" Credits. 39’52"
(Source: Jef Cornelis 1964 - 1990, Espace Art Contemporain : Maison de la culture et de la Communication de Saint-Etienne, 1991)