For the second time, the Kunstmuseum is presenting an exhibition on contemporary sculpture at Hellenstein Castle. After metals, the focus this year is on wood as a material.

The exhibition brings together around 50 works by more than 20 internationally renowned artists who reinterpret the traditional material wood for today. The entrance to the exhibition is the castle church, where contemporary works meet late Gothic and Baroque art, creating an exciting dialogue between past and present. In the so-called Obervogteisaal in the first floor of the castle, the exhibition provides an overview of the impressive diversity of artistic visual languages from the 1960s to the present.

Why the material “wood” as the theme of an exhibition? The more the virtual determines our everyday life, the more we crave the experience of the sensual. Wood as a natural material conveys sensuality par excellence. From this point of view, it is not surprising that wood sculpture has experienced a visible renaissance in recent decades.

Why “Holzwege” (Woodways) as the title of the exhibition? Originally, a wood path (Holzweg) is a path in the forest that serves to transport felled trees and ends in the middle of the forest. If a hiker follows this path by mistake, he cannot reach his destination but has to turn back. That is why the expression “to be on the woodway” (being on the wrong track) also means to be able to get lost, to have to make detours. Anyone who approaches art must sometimes take detours, turn back, leave familiar paths, must follow a secret, must be open to new paths, new insights. And that is what this exhibition can and must do.

Jürgen Knubben

With works by:

Stephan Balkenhol, Franz Bernhard, Gerda Bier, Daniel Bräg, Franz Bucher, Willi Bucher, Claus Bury, Tony Cragg, Laura Eckert, Arian Faller and Mateusz Budasz, Armin Göhringer, Klaus Hack, Ingrid Gartlieb, Alfonso Hüppi, David Nash, Werner Pokorny, Klaus Prior, Thomas Putze, Reinhard Sigle, Karl Manfred Rennertz, Rudolf Wachter, Daniel Wagenblast, Katrin Zuzáková