Nothing Is Permanent
June 17 — November 11, 2022
Public sculpture trail in Esch-sur-Alzette
Stephan Balkenhol, Guillaume Bijl, Katinka Bock, Valentin Carron, Tony Cragg, Wim Delvoye, Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil, Tina Gillen, Jeppe Hein, Hisae Ikenaga, Vera Kox, Michel Majerus, Christoph Meier, Bertrand Ney, Claudia Passeri, Roland Quetsch, Stefan Rinck, Eric Schumacher, Barthélémy Toguo, Bernar Venet, Wang Du, Wennig & Daubach, Erwin Wurm
As European Capital of Culture, the City of Esch-sur-Alzette is organising a major exhibition of sculptures in the public realm. Taking its cue from popular predecessors such as Skulptur Projekte in Münster, Nothing Is Permanent will connect key locations in the city by means of a trail punctuated by 23 monumental artworks.
Curated by Alex Reding, the exhibition brings together world-renowned artists who will be exhibiting alongside upcoming and established artists from Luxembourg. Through a wide range of positions and approaches, the exhibition aims to question the role of public artworks in a rapidly changing urban and societal context. To do so, it will explore concepts of impermanence and variability – of forms, topics and perspectives, but also of interpretations and associations, which are bound to change over time.
The title of the exhibition, which combines existing works with new site-specific installations, is borrowed from a work by the artist Michel Majerus, who was born in Esch-sur-Alzette in 1967. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the artist’s untimely death, his large painting Newcomer (1999) will be shown in a dedicated space at Konschthal Esch.
Starting from the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, the trail follows a loop that lets visitors discover or rediscover the city’s main points of interest: National Resistance Museum, Ariston, Konschthal, Bridderhaus, Uelzechtsstrooss, Parc Laval, Schlassgoart… The route will be signposted and traced on a special map available at the Infofabrik as well on a GPS-assisted map accessible from the government’s Géoportail website. Furthermore, all the sculptures will be marked with a QR code that provides access to more extensive information about the artists and their works.
A richly illustrated catalogue with descriptions of the works and an essay by the art and architecture historian Thibaut de Ruyter will be available as a mockup on the day of the opening and will be published in early July.
