Große Aachener / Great Aachener

Works by Franz Bernhard can be found in public spaces all over Germany and are easily identifiable. Despite their weight – the artist’s preferred material is Corten steel with a rusty patina – his sculptures rise apparently weightlessly into the surrounding space and thus redefine it. Their starting point is often the human figure, which seems so abstract that only the title evokes associations with human beings or specific body parts. That also applies to the “Große Aachener.” Without a plinth, which makes the sculpture seem to grow directly out of the ground, both segments, a voluminous arc and a “stem” mounted on it, protrude far beyond their base. The buildings around the square, defined by right angles, become something like a background to the dominant diagonals of the sculpture. It gives the space a completely different character dominated by this interplay.