Jürgen Partenheimer | Weltachse (Lager), 1993/2000 | max goelitz

1993

Medium

Display cabinet, 16 wooden cubes, watercolor on chinese rice paper

Dimensions

185 × 100 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-155782

The color of the bronze cubes of Axis Mundi (1994-2018) is predominately ultramarine blue, divided in three translucent chromatic shades. The system according to which the cubes are stacked implies no rational or logic height. Their mutual similarity emphasises a dynamic, upward thrusting energy on all sides of the sculpture. The self-similarity of the cubes shows characteristics of the whole in the detail and leads to a complex structure that remains indeterminable and changeable at any time. The system of placing the sculpture is calculable but sensitive, every change of the initial position results in a new rhythm. With the variable height of the sculpture and the precisely defined installation site, Partenheimer reacts sensitively to the respective environment between architecture and nature. After Jürgen Partenheimer had already built a plywood model in 1983, the first Axis Mundi was realized in 1993 for an installation in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. The artist assembled a column from handmade wooden cubes, which he covered with watercolored rice paper. In 1997 a first version for the exterior in bronze for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam followed. In addition, there were further - partly temporary - locations in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, China and England. On the occasion of the exhibition "The Archive" the World Axis 2014 was exhibited in the rotunda of the Pinakothek der Moderne.