The sculpture “The Sky Over Nine Columns” by German artist Heinz Mack is on display in St. Moritz. Several hundred guests watched the ceremonial unveiling of the nine golden steles on the shores of Lake St. Moritz, at which the play “The Sky Over Nine Trumpets” by Bernd Franke was premiered. The large sculpture will remain in St. Moritz until March — the exhibition is part of an installation journey through Europe.
The winter season in St. Moritz began on Saturday with a cultural highlight: Several hundred guests, many of them from abroad, came to the unveiling of the sculpture “The Sky Over Nine Columns.”
The sculpture stands out particularly well in the colossal nature of the Engadin, said Ralph Dommermuth at the opening of the exhibition. The nine golden steles would fascinate people in Engadin at all times of day and — thanks to the lighting — also at night.
The Ralph Dommermuth Arts and Culture Foundation has sent the 14-by-19-meter sculpture by German artist Heinz Mack on a journey through Europe. It consists of nine square steles, each seven and a half meters high.
The work was exhibited at the 2014 Venice Biennale, in the Sakip Sabanci Museum sculpture park in Istanbul and at the Ciutat de les Arts e Ciències in Valencia. It can now be seen in the wild for the first time.
“The pure sensuality of seeing”
“It's exactly as I had imagined,” enthused artist Heinz Mack. “The uniquely intense light of the Engadin makes the sculpture shine so strongly that it virtually dissolves into light and is no longer perceived as a material sculpture. It is the pure sensuality of seeing.”
Together with numerous guests, Heinz Mack was delighted to receive the premiere of the composition “The Sky Over Nine Trumpets” by German composer Bernd Franke. The piece, which was performed by nine trumpeters, is a modern interpretation of Baroque sounds.
Bernd Franke was also fascinated in the soft afternoon light before the ceremony and was very happy with the premiere of his composition.
Soon after the unveiling, the sun disappeared behind the Engadin mountains. The clear, geometric shapes of the golden steles glowed in the evening light and created a sharp contrast to the natural environment with coniferous forest, snow-covered pastures, Lake St. Moritz and the unique mountain landscape.
You can look forward to the effect of the sculpture over the different times of day; the nine steles are covered with more than 850,000 light-reflecting, gold-leaf mosaic tiles. The installation is located on the footpath around Lake St. Moritz, just off the town and can only be reached on foot. This trail is very popular, so that “The Sky Over Nine Columns” is likely to be a crowd puller this winter.
The journey of this extraordinary large sculpture to special places in the world is an art project planned for many years, which is designed and realized by the Ralph Dommermuth Foundation for Art and Culture in collaboration with Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art.
“The intense and clear Engadin light, which Giovanni Segantini had already raved about, makes the golden mosaic tiles glow particularly strongly,” Michael Beck from Beck & Eggeling also remarked.
The sculpture will be standing on the shores of Lake St. Moritz until next spring. It is still uncertain where the sculpture will be exhibited after St. Moritz.
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The Sky Over Nine Columns in St. Moritz
Christian Gartmann | Media Office
ninecolumns@gartmann.biz | Tel +41 79 355 78 78
Beck & Eggeling - International Fine Art
Dr. Antonia Lehmann-Tolkmitt
antonia.lehmann-tolkmitt@beck-eggeling.de | Tel +49 211 4915 8929