Martin Willing, Quadratschichtung, zweiachsig, wachsed, 1999/2000 @museum.de

You can look for hours at the never quite spent swing of this monumental free-standing sculpture with the title Quadratschichtung, zweiachsig, wachsend (Square Stratification, double-axe, rising). It makes you wonder how high such a wind-moved sculpture can be built! Martin Willing (*1958 in Bocholt) constructed it from exact, geometrically-formed metal rods and bands in progressively expanded surfaces and “folded it around two axes, encircling the space”. The materials he prefers for his work are titanium, steel and duralumin. Complicated calculations and elaborate constructions were necessary so that the sculpture, by reason of its structure and material, can exhibit its own specific dynamics located between immobility and movement. This was preceded by calculating scientifically the precision and systematics of kinetic problems and of oscillating processes in space. With his works, Martin Willing stands in a direct line with the tradition of concrete art as it was defined by Theo van Doesburg in 1924. Willing tries to guarantee that his works are non-personal by a rationally controlled procedure based on scientific and mathematical methods. This four-sided pyramid Quadratschichtung is standing on its ‘toes’ - the result of this de-emotionalized process - and radiates a surprising poetic and meditative aura.

(Audio: Text by Marta Cencillo-Ramírez)

Martin Willig

Quadratschichtung, zweiachsig, wachsend

1999/2000

Titan, cut by water jet, welded, sandblasted

Permanent loan Michael and Eleonore Stoffel Foundation

With kind endorsement of Prof. Dr. Klaus Heubeck