Mann im Wind / Man in the Wind

“Mann im Wind I, II and III“ is the title of this group of larger-than-life bronze figures standing on round bronze plates and facing each other on the terrace of Essen’s Philharmonic Hall. They are a variation of a motif rather than a group of sculptures related to each other, since the wind seems to blow equally into the faces of all three men, moulding their clothes to their bodies. All three men have sunk up to their calves in apparently muddy soil and are thus reminiscent of the “Mann im Matsch” (Man in the Mud) of whom the artist has created a number of large and small variations since the 1980s.
These people struggling against the adversities of nature – whether mud or wind – are no heroic fighters. Their athletic bodies may remain upright, but their empty or wondering facial expressions betray a stoic acceptance of immovable natural forces rather than determined resistance.
Added to this is the fact that their lower legs almost appear encased in concrete, as the mafia victim cliché has it. Even though the artist himself explains that his plasticine models simply would not remain upright and that he stuck them into a lump of modelling clay for this reason, today this way of mounting them seems more of an ironic comment on the art-historical tradition of the monument. The sculptures, a loan from the artist, have been on the terrace of Essen’s Philharmonic Hall in the municipal park since 2019.