The artist Ursula Sax (*1935), who has lived and worked in Berlin for almost seven decades, talks about the central message of her artistic work during her interview.
Frau Sax, what makes your art special? What is it about – what are the central themes of your work?
It has turned out that art in the urban space, in public spaces is the focus of my interest and my talent.
I’m fascinated to be able to contribute something to a given urban space situation that did not previously exist. Something that is NEW in this setting and adds something to it that gives it a new meaning.
Introduce us to the work that you feel exemplifies or best embodies the message of your work.
Let me explain my LOOPING.
It was the result of an invited competition and was to be the planned public-space artwork for the new exhibition centre of the Berlin Messe entrance that was being built at the time.
Ursula Sax, Looping, 1992, 19 m (height) x 50 m from base to base,
120 m steel tube, diameter 1 m,
Photo: Ursula Sax, Reinhard Friedrich
There was no urban situation there, with residential buildings or shops and passers-by.
This was where cars were the passers-by, rushing by day and night.
After analysing the site, I chose a format that would do justice to this location. My LOOPING is 19 m high and 50 m wide and is made of tubular steel and painted yellow.
It is the largest sculpture in the city.
The Geometric Ballet (Hommage à Oskar Schlemmer) is another important work of mine. The geometry of the human body fascinates me. It gives me great pleasure to bring my dance sculptures to life through actors in a stage play or simply through performance
Ursula Sax, Das Geometrische Ballett, 2019, 35 Photographs,
25 x 35 cm x auf 30 x 40 cm, Hahnemühlen, Photos: Ursula Sax, Semjon H.N. Semjon
I owe the resurrection of the Geometric Ballet to my highly enterprising gallerist Semjon. He still wants to bring to fruition my design for a large walk-in sculpture that I created in 1974 for the park area around the new high-rise buildings of the Federal Ministries in Bonn. His not immodest vision at the Kulturforum is of a sculptural urban link between the Museum of the 20th Century currently being built and Sharoun’s Philharmonie and State Library. No longer in steel, of course, but in yellow concrete.
Translation: Tim Chafer
THE DEED | THE WORK is a complementary and separately presented part of THE INTERVIEW IN|DEEDS with Ursula Sax
This post is also available in: Deutsch