Turm V / Tower V

The form of a house reduced to its basic elements – in this case wall, gable, roof, and doorway – is typical of Werner Pokorny’s steel sculptures. Lying on its side, stacked, or crowned with an upright house as a “steepletop,” he created different variations of “Turm.” This version in Gütersloh incorporates, in addition to two horizontal houses, a closed cube on stands which the house on top which points upwards like an arrow. The sculpture is made of Corten steel, whose rusty patina not only provides protection against the weather but also a warm, bricklike colouring. The historical context in which the work is situated is special here, even though the artist learned about it only in retrospect: “When you ground it in the history of the houses of Jewish citizens here in Kirchstraße that were burned down in the Kristallnacht, this work of art acquires an even deeper meaning,” Reiner Kuhn wrote, chairman of the Verein zur Förderung plastischer Kunst in Stadt und Kreis Gütersloh e.V. (association for the promotion of sculptural art in Gütersloh) which arranged to have the work installed in front of the Kunstverein building. Thus a sculpture that is essentially autonomous can also be read as a memorial of the destroyed houses.