“Nothing Permanent”

In the discussion session after his lecture about the history of Skulptur Projekte Münster at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds in 2012, Kasper König was asked what advice he might give to someone who was thinking about setting up a city sculpture project. König replied: “Make nothing permanent.”

Since 1977, Skulptur Projekte Münster has been a temporary exhibition format with a focus on the idea of projects. Although planned to be temporary, debates rising around the preservation and social engagement of some works now and again led to acquisition and, over the years, a “public collection” has gradually come into being, which nowadays comprises 39 works. The Henry Moore Foundation was also established in 1977 and over the last 40 years it has been working to support amongst other things the production, exhibition and study of sculpture in Britain. It does this through its headquarters at Perry and the Henry Moore Institute, a centre for the study of sculpture in Leeds.

This collaborative event “Nothing Permanent” continues their shared interest in sculpture and develops their conversation about its public life. In Münster, as in other urban locations, questions are asked about urban development, historic or social change and their relation to sculpture: such as “How can there be engaged social interaction with works which might be ‘outmoded’ or not seem directly to be relevant to contemporary concerns?” and “To what extent is art in public spaces resistant to collection?” The frame of the exhibition is also an issue and the idea of a changing temporary display is part of our discussion too.

The statement “make nothing permanent” is above all a call to think about art in public spaces as a changeable situation—whether across collection, exhibition and/or conservation—and this provocation serves as the starting point for this jointly initiated symposium. For it, we have asked four speakers—artists, curators and writers—to response to the idea with each addressing it from their own experience in the field of sculpture and each with different understandings of the urgencies and exigencies of these issues.

Programme and time table

2–2:30pm
Welcome and introduction
Jon Wood (Henry Moore Institute), Marianne Wagner (Skulptur Projekte)

2:30–3:15pm
Un-Monuments
Brandon Taylor
Art Historian, University of Southampton / Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford

3:15–4pm
Being Part of Somewhere, Belonging to the World
Marilyn Douala Manga Bell
Co-Founder of the contemporary art center doual’art, Duala

4–4:30pm
Break

4:30–5:15pm
The Accumulation of What Is and What Isn’t
Nancy Adajania
Cultural theorist and independent curator, Mumbai

5:15–6pm
Why Non-Permanency Persists
Thomas Hirschhorn
Artist, Paris

6–8pm
Food & drinks

The language of the conference will be English. No admission fee.