Wupperlauf / Wupper Course

At first glance, “Wupperlauf” may seem atypical of Tony Cragg’s oeuvre, but it shares a characteristic ambiguity with his other sculptures. Although it represents the course of the river Wupper, displayed here, unlike traditional maps, rotated by 90 degrees, its shape is more reminiscent of a tree with a thick trunk and tapering branches, or veins, which earned the sculpture the nickname “Lebensader” (Lifeline, lit. Vein of Life). The sculpture demonstrates that organic forms often grow according to the same principles. While the trunk and the thicker “branches” which represent the main strand of the river system from its spring in Börlinghausen to the point where it joins the Rhine, with the tributaries Kerspe, Neye, Bever etc., were cast in stainless steel, the thinner “branches” representing the smaller rivers and streams were forged in stainless steel. The trunk is firmly anchored in the ground without a base. The surface shapes of the river dams of the Wupper tributaries in the Oberbergischer Kreis (Lingese, Kerspe, Neye and Bever dam) are found on the upper course. Its delicate structure makes the upper course sway a little with vibrations and wind, giving the sculpture the character of wind chimes.

“Wupperlauf” was realized in 1997 as architectural art for the new Friedrich-Arkaden in Elberfeld, commissioned by the Provinzial Versicherung . In 2018, the Provinzial Nordwest Lebensversicherung AG sold its shares of the Friedrich-Arkaden. To preserve the sculpture at its location, it was handed over to the Von der Heydt Museum as a permanent loan in 2019.

A year after it was erected, in March 1998, the artist had to repair the sculpture due to incipient oxidation but decided during the repair to do a complete, more stable restoration which could be erected in March 1999.

http://www.welt-der-form.net/Wuppertal/Cragg-1997-Wupperlauf.html

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensader_Wupper