Verformung 14, 17-1 / Deformation 14, 17 -1

In 1971, the city of Monschau put on a modern sculpture exhibition, which featured the work of numerous artists who later became famous. Curated by Klaus Honnef, the show added unusually modern accents to the cityscape, which was otherwise characterized by picturesque half-timbered houses and cobbled streets. This triggered controversial reactions among the population at the time.

In 2011, a retrospective of the forward-thinking exhibition Umwelt-Akzente was organized in order to reconsider the work after the forty years that had passed. Alf Lechner’s Verformung / Deformation was then permanently reinstalled in the original location where it was first shown in 1971.

The work is made up of four thick-walled square steel pipes, each bent twice at right angles and positioned parallel to each other. The first three pipes form a row of identical elements. However, additional mechanical forces have acted on the fourth pipe, creating a huge dent in the hollow body and forcing the end of the beam to point upwards at a more acute angle than its three neighbors.

The sculpture belongs to the artist’s series of Verformungen/ Deformations, which includes a total of 98 works that were created between 1967 and 1971. They all explore the principle of changing a given hollow form with the application of force, which produces logically comprehensible but complex structures.