Waiting for the Barbarians

Kendell Geers’ art doesn’t aim to win over the viewer by looking nice, but instead strives to present a powerful social and political sign of resistance.

Not far from Kloster Gravenhorst, also a site of violent historical conflict, the South African artist erected a labyrinth of security fences and barbed wire. Despite its fortified appearance, the structure offers no real protection.

At most, it functions here as a sort of trellis, leaving all of the fences to one day be overgrown with ivy. The installation seems to suggest that all of the conflicts between opposing viewpoints – war and peace, savagery and civilization, art and nature – will only come to an end once nature has triumphed.

Beyond that, however, it also asks about inside and outside, about who is seeking protection from whom, about cause and effect. The barbarians we are waiting for here are probably always the others.

Further reading:
Catalog: skulptur biennale münsterland 2001, Editor: Kreis Steinfurt, der Landrat, Christoph Tannert, Vice Versa Verlag, 2001

Additional information:
Kreis Steinfurt website: www.kreis-steinfurt.de/skulptur-biennale
Skulpturenführer Münsterland: s370305094.online.de/skulpturen/skulpturen/steinfurt_04.php