Dead tree, set into concrete wall; 637 (h) x 357.5 x 46.5 cm
„Red is the colour of power, of alarm, anger, love, emphasis, but also of correction. With her Denkmal / Monument, Gloria Friedmann (* 1950) addresses the cultural connection between mankind and nature. For the German-French artist mankind and its often self-destructive and paranoid actions remain part of the natural evolution, and thus of the world. According to Uwe Rüth, she therefore stands for an „ethical responsibility of mankind, which she – in an artist´s way – recognizes as part of our species, and as witness of its existence and its abnormal attitudes, while capturing it in the naivety of insistently spatial pictures”.
The bright crimson red concrete wall with the dead tree from the Essen-Stadtwald area set into it can be taken as a note of the vibration that we feel inside ourselves whenever nature is oppressed … or is awakening to new life.
(Tankred Stachelhaus)
„Nature and I. As part of nature, I am myself nature, and at the same time I am myself. Hence my interest in the non-human nature, outside of my own self.“
(Gloria Friedmann)
As one of the first activities after the founding of the association, KaM had this work professionally restored; see here. On 25 May 2008 the artist sent some very positive comments about the result of the restoration. More about this also in an NRZ article from 24 May 2018 here.
Ever since KaM members have continuously kept the work clean: up to the maximum height reachable.
After 13 years, in September 2021, Gloria Friedmann’s Denkmal / Monument has again been restored professionally on behalf of KaM; see the following pictures … more about it here.
Picture by Anders Norrsell, courtesy of Wanås Konst
After constructing her Denkmal / Monument on Moltkeplatz, in the subsequent year Gloria Friedmann created
Stigma, 1991
in the Wanås Konst Skulpturenparken, Knislinge, Sweden.
The tree stump, painted black by the artist, collapsed in 2005 during Hurricane Gudrun.
Links in respect of Gloria Friedmann:
Gloria Friedmann: Die Grünstation / The Green Station, 2006; at the Waldskulpturenweg / Wood Sculpture Path