Skulpturenpark Köln

Jimmie Durham is an artist who has lived as a nomad all his life and whose works for this reason often take up the features of encountered situations and improvised-like forms. In his contribution, Durham decided to purchase a tree trunk for the park that will be a guest here for a two-year period. The trunk comes from the Congo and was imported to Germany to be cut up for veneering. By way of its new function as sculpture, the tree will for now be preserved. In this safeguarded situation, it too seems to express the theme of a reclining figure, but the unfamiliarity of its African wood above all paints a subtle portrait of the artist as an outsider within a more conventional vegetation. The tree takes on the aspect of a curiosity cabinet because of its size and dimension, since such a tree trunk is unknown in Europe. The title expresses an identity with the tree; it voices the fact that it is not one of the players.

Jimmie Durham lives and works in Berlin and Rome.

The sculpture is not on display in KölnSkulptur #9 anymore.