Wir überwinden Grenzen

Untitled - free sculpture, 1971/1974

by Roland Martin

Aluminum; 420 x 240 x 110 cm

Freiburg University Medical Center
Klinikpark des Universitätsklinikums
in front of the Dental, Oral and Maxillofacial Clinic
Hugstetter Straße 55

Elegance of the ever-same

One becomes two and two is one, it just depends on the angle of view. If you approach the Dental and Maxillofacial Clinic from the Parkweg, your gaze falls on a tall, seemingly self-contained figure; if you come closer, you are faced with two parts of an open form.

The creative phase in which Roland Martin's free-standing sculpture was created can be described as a "concentration on basic principles". The work was the winner of an art in architecture competition for the university hospital building in 1974.

Two identical but laterally reversed stelae, towering over four meters high, form a whole. They are arranged in such a way that they create a shell shape whose common cavity is open at the top. The stelae consist of aluminum segments: prefabricated, crescent-shaped surface pieces that are mounted in an additive row over an axis. The 110 modules of the same shape are staggered in such a way that the two halves appear to spiral upwards in equal and opposite directions. The gradation of the segments creates a lively interplay of light and shadow which, together with the light reflection of the material, further enhances the sculptural impression.

It is a complex simplicity. On the one hand, we are confronted with an abstract sculpture that is self-sufficient; on the other, the convex and concave forms and the rib-like sections give rise to associations with the human form. Yet the figure eludes any attempt at allegorical interpretation with its elegant sweep.

Nadine Heckeler

_{from: Skulptur in Freiburg, Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts im öffentlichen Raum}
^{Published by Michael Klant in collaboration with Oliver Diskau}
mondo^{verlag, GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1998, ISBN 3-922675-76-X}