Verkürzter Himmel / Shortened Heavens

It’s hard to imagine the vast expanse of the heavens. That might be why Italian Arte Povera artist Giovanni Anselmo brings them down to our level: at a little more than a meter high, he uses simple means to give our imaginations a helping hand.

The sculpture consists of a square bar that is positioned vertically on a grassy field near the theology faculty at the Universität Münster like a path marker. The words Verkürzter Himmel / Shortened Heavens are engraved on the top surface. The design is based on one of the artist’s works from 1969, which has the same text in Italian.

Around this time, the artist began to deal with the relationship between science, measurability, and sensual experience, discovering one of his primary motifs, which also shapes this work.

Further reading:
Skulptur-Projekte 1987 in Münster, ed. by Klaus Bußmann and Kasper König, Cologne 1987, pp. 25–28.