Group
Babyspirale

In 2014, there was a Tobias Rehberger exhibition at the Schirn in Frankfurt. There was a special sculpture there, that appealed to me. The flyer says: “Mother spiral (stairs), 2011, 130 x 180 x 145 cm synthetic resin (epoxy), car paint, Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg Vienna. Like all the works in the “Mothers” series, this sculpture is a model. Visitors to the exhibition in which it was shown had the opportunity to acquire a certificate that allows them to make stairs, based on the model. How the model is transferred is up to the manufacturer. By sending a photo of the finished staircase to Studio Tobias Rehberger, it will be registered as his work and included in his work archive.” The sculpture Newstairsbaby6011960 was created in four years from steel, body filler and industrial paint. It is registered under the name „newstairsbaby6011960“ in Tobias Rehberger's work archive. It is approx. 2 m 80 high. This is concept art as we know it. The artist is named and, for example, the object is described. For the arte laguna prize, this is not to participate the sculpture “newstairsbaby6011960“ by Tobias Rehberger and his concept”.

A new feature of our concept project babyspirale around the sculpture “newstairsbaby6011960 by Tobias Rehberger, is that the people who were involved in the project are also named. In particular, the people and companies who contributed ideas and artistic work to the project should be named. There was a project dynamic around the “newstairsbaby6011960” sculpture project that was not foreseen in Tobias Rehberger's concept. Frank Gründler continued to work on the spiral, contributing his ideas when Josef Ruppel was unable to do so for health reasons. Ruth Wörner-Mediouni contributed her specialist knowledge of paints as well as her artistic knowledge for painting. Volkmer Gross took photographs during Josef Ruppel's working process and of the finished work. These photographs, together with film clips by Petra Schmitt, Volkmer Gross and Elke Helbig, as well as color studies by Josef Ruppel, formed the basis for the film that Petra Schmitt compiled in consultation with Josef Ruppel. The film shows, for example, how Roland Metzger, Claus Bodensohn, Winfried Ruppel and Josef Ruppel transport the baby spiral from the workshop into the open air with great expertise and skill. Herbert Howe cut out photos by Gaby Nothum and mounted them in various landscapes. He also added to the newly created pictures.

Finally, Elke Helbig, Biljana Kovac and Gisela Howe created a sculpture cake which was presented to Josef Ruppel as part of a spiral celebration and then eaten during the party. Sybille Czauderna contributed a chili con carne to the celebration. She also sat with Josef Ruppel in front of the spiral, watching the shadows form in the evening as the basis for the color studies. Sebastian Lawrenz plays the piano in the film. Overall, a very dynamic art process developed, both within the group and in response to the visitors at the open studios. There were heated discussions about the nature of conceptual art, but also about the spiral and the further progress of sculpture. The photographs, the video and the cake sculpture will now be submitted for the competition.