COLOSSAL – ART  FACT  FICTION

Even though the »Varus Year« takes place in the year 2009 and thus exactly 2,000 years after the historical event: for COLOSSAL, it marks the start of three whole years of art indulgence. In 2010 and 2011, the COLOSSAL Parcours, which covers the entire VarusRegion as well as Osnabrück, invites you to join exciting artistic experiments in the context of the Varus Battle. 24 works of art by 20 internationally renowned artists are waiting to be discovered in fields, forests, waters, barns and turbine rooms.

Art enters into a humorous interplay with its environment. For example, the cows of Hellbaum farm (Ostercappeln-Schwagstorf) and Bünte farm (Ostercappeln-Venne) seem to »communicate« with the art installed inside their barns, or the barn floor becomes a rather festive ambience for Anna Lange’s and Susanne Tunn’s works of art. One of the conceptual ideas of both the artists and worldwide active curator Jan Hoet is that this type of art should initiate reflection, possibly resulting in unusual insights on the visitors’ side. However, this art show does not serve to illustrate the Varus Battle. It creates its own spaces for thoughts and visual perception instead. To what extent this concept is working has already been proven by the huge number of visitors in 2009.

Fernando Sánchez Castillo
Pacto de Madrid, 2004
Bronze, Größe variabel, abhängig von Standort
Museumspark Kalkriese
Foto: Christian Grovermann, © der Künstler

The six artworksplaced on the Varus Battle premises at Kalkriese seem to be random comments about the museum’s park. In the case of Fernando Castillo’s »Pacto de Madrid«, we never find out whether this is an archaeological find or something altogether different. Likewise, the cool and seemingly neutral neon writing which has been installed under the museum building by Dutch artist Anna Lange, could always have existed there. The mysterious sentence shining at the viewer from the semi-darkness turns our modern understanding of day and night on its head – and it is an immediate response of Roman poet Tacitus to the Germanic world view. In contrast, the stone by Susanne Tunn, which apparently has been dropped accidentally at the museum’s entrance, remains silent. Yet it reveals – its sharp-edged inside exposed – millions of years old history.

Anna Lange
Die Nacht gebiert aus ihrer Sicht den Tag, 2009
Zink, Neon, Farbe Ice white, 30 x 917,5 x 16 cm
Museumspark Kalkriese
Foto: Christian Grovermann, © die Künstlerin

Museum und Park Kalkriese is the conceptual starting point of a 120 kilometer ‘art route’. The art route, which is clearly marked by signposts on the cycling paths, is also easily accessible by car and bus. It covers an area ranging from Bad Essen to Bramsche and from Gut Alt Barenaue and museum park Kalkriese to Osnabrück; the latter being the location farthest to the south. It runs through the beautiful countryside between Wiehen Hills and Teutoburg Forest. As helpful route planners, a bicycle map exclusively developed for this project with handy information about the art locations as well as GPS data are available. They can be downloaded from the website www.colossal.de.com. Furthermore, COLOSSAL bicycles can be rented at the museum park. Other than in 2009, the Installation »Arminius’s 20th of July« by Bazon Brock is no longer on display at Ostercappeln’s church square, but will be open to the public from spring 2010 onward and during the entire time of the Landesgartenschau 2010 (County Garden Show 2010) at Waldkurpark in Bad Essen.

A lavishly illustrated catalogue, comprehensive learning programs for all age groups plus an accompanying program supplement the COLOSSAL art project. Planned are, among others, literature and film events, scenic collages and music etc.

Information available at: www.colossal.de.com, info@lvosl.de, Phone: +49 5403 724550

Duration of the exhibition: Until the end of 2011
Project initiators: Landschaftsverband Osnabrücker Land e. V.
Cooperation partners: Varusschlacht GmbH, Tourismusverband Osnabrücker Land e.V. and VarusRegion
Main sponsors: Kulturstiftung des Bundes and VGH Versicherungen
Patrons: Kulturstaatsminister Bernd Neumann and Ján Figél’, Member of the European Commission