Luther and The Avant-Garde

Group Exhibition
Contemporary Art in Wittenberg, Berlin and Kassel
Central Exhibition: Wittenberg, Old Prison, Wittenberg, Germany
19/05/2017 - 17/09/2017

On the 500th anniversary of the Reformation—with celebrations stretching over four days at the end of May in Germany—the group show Luther and the Avantgarde was mounted in the Old Prison of Wittenberg, a town that is a 40-minute train ride from Berlin, and home to Protestant Reformation initiator Martin Luther. The artworks were displayed in renovated jail cells, hallways and staircases of the former prison, which has been modified to house the art exhibition. With the Protestant church as a major sponsor, the project took a remarkably critical stance on the Reformation, and moved beyond the ecclesiastic into the sociocultural sphere: How can art reform today’s world? Artists from across five continents set out to examine the fascination surrounding Luther, and, like the great reformer before them, pre-occupy themselves intensively with the pressing social issues of our day. Eko filled his cell with the sculpture Hierarchy of Prosperity #1 (2015). Human eyes peer out of rectangular holes in gas cylinders that are stacked into a pyramid and chained together. His work describes the struggle over natural resources, including crude oil and natural gas, which has widened the gap between rich and poor in his home country.

Photo Courtesy of Sammlung Wemhoner. Photo Daniel Faro and Daniel Biskup