2023-05-26 19:50:00
With the “Work of the Week” the “Freie Presse” presents art in public space. Today: The metal sculpture “Head” by Achim Borsdorf in Hofefeld near Frauenstein (around 2000).
Hofefeld, a small, scattered settlement near Frauenstein in the Eastern Ore Mountains, is an idyllic place. Fields, meadows, fruit trees, in between more or less old houses, beautifully renovated. Susanne and Carsten Gille live at Hofefeld 5, who are now inviting visitors to the summer gallery for the 14th time. One of the guests this year: Achim Borsdorf with several metal sculptures that populate the meadows in front of the farm.
The large “head” on a narrow neck looks directly at visitors. He may be a bit snooty, his mouth twisted grimly. The rusty iron forms a nice contrast to the green all around. But he doesn’t seem to enjoy nature, but rather to think he’s above it and only think of himself. As if the head belonged to a person of the 20th century, in which it was also created. This head could belong to a person who does not enjoy spring all around, but only endures it, completed as a stage in a life that he regards as “savings”, as the Austrian philosopher Robert Pfaller wrote in his book “What it is to live for worth it” writes. It says: “When you embrace life as a gift, you treat it as a gift with an obligation — an obligation to give some of the gift… When we smoke, drink with friends, dance till we drop , then we spend our life and in doing so give back something of the gift that we understand as life. It makes us happy in these moments … The opposite would be to see life as savings.” But maybe this head is just hiding behind its raised nose the sadness of not being able to live like this. A head made of old iron that senses that time will pass over it? A feeling familiar to many who are being forced upon by what seem to be so fast modern times.
steel wall
Achim Borsdorf was a rather reserved artist. Born in Berlin in 1947, he trained as a mechanical engineer and made his first steel sculptures as early as 1965. From 1970 to 1976 he studied animation and industrial design at the University of the Arts in West Berlin. From 1982 to 1985 he also studied religious studies and philosophy. In 1977 he made his first larger steel sculptures, from 1978 he made several cartoon and experimental films, taught at a secondary school in Berlin-Tempelhof, and from 1988 worked in youth art projects in Berlin and Eisenhüttenstadt. Achim Borsdorf died in Berlin on March 19, 2021.
The steel sculptor had several exhibitions in Germany, some of which were large. Some of his works are in public space, including in Berlin and Oberhausen. The “Wall Bracket” at the former border crossing between FRG and GDR Helmstedt/Marienborn, today’s German Division Memorial, is impressive. A large abstract figure bends over a piece of the real steel-reinforced wall between East and West. In his steel sculptures, Achim Borsdorf often used old things that had apparently become useless. “It started when I was 16. I felt sorry for the leftovers. And later the feeling of being sorry intensified,” he told the “Mitteldeutsche Zeitung” in 2003 on the occasion of an exhibition in Bitterfeld.
Life as savings
The experience of suffering, of feeling sorry is reflected in many of Achim Borsdorf’s sculptures. Even the rusty iron tells stories. The often abstract figures, which only remotely remind of the human form, some also in the vicinity of the “head” on the Hofefeld, appear rather bent, marked by life, sometimes seeming to ward it off. But they are also permeable to this life, absorb their surroundings, allow views of their surroundings that change their character. In Frauenstein it is the green of the meadows and the trees, some of which are still in bloom. In an urban environment, in front of walls, houses, on sidewalks, the figures would appear very different. But here, in nature, they form a counterpoint to spring, which can always be a necessary awakening for people. Or as Robert Pfaller writes: “If we regard life as savings, we deal with it as if we were already dead. This is a caution towards life which kills life itself. Prodigal, on the other hand, is accurate this vitality – what impresses about spring. If spring has a meaning in philosophy, it is this sense of lavishness – a culture of bounty.”
Maybe this “head” made of old iron can no longer learn that. He is too much shaped by a life of fulfilling his duties, the choice between eating or being eaten. But it can stimulate reflection on whether this really is the meaning of life. Or whether we don’t have to give what we need ourselves at the same time.
Exhibition The summer gallery at Hofefeld 5 in Frauenstein is open until August 20 on weekends from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. or by appointment.
Fest 037326 9625, Mobil 0163 2925 491
#work #week #Achim #Borsdorf #free #press