Perfect Couple, 2010

photo installation
fine art print on photo carton, two pieces, each 35×50 cm; wooden pedestal, 60x75x75 cm

After the death of Friedrich Ebert, the first president of Germany in 1925, Richard Scheibe was invited to make a monument of him. Scheibe was the director of Städelschule at that time and his name was mentioned as one of the Nazi artists until he begun a new career after 1946. Friedrich Ebert Monument was finished and placed at the facade of Paul’s Church in 1926. In 1933 the National Socialists took it down. Between 1933–50 the pedestal of the monument at the facade of the church stayed empty. In 1950, a new version of the monument was placed in the same spot, also made by Scheibe. This can still be seen at the facade of St. Paul’s Church, whereas the old version was at the back garden of the Frankfurt History Museum in 2010. For the work, the artists took the photographs of both the old and new versions of the Friedrich Ebert Monument and placed them on the one-to-one replication of the pedestal of the monument at the facade of St. Paul’s Church. In this way, the work points to the gaps in the memory of a public space and different visualizations of a monument in two different eras.

Installation view; Gallery Heike Strelow, Frankfurt
photos: Günyol & Kunt