Wolfgang Mattheuer
Foot (The Step of the Century)

Wolfgang Mattheuer’s sculpture Liegendes Liebespaar [Reclining Lovers] (1970), which has been on display in the foyer of DAS MINSK since March 2024, has been joined by his bronze sculpture Fuß (Jahrhundertschritt) [Foot (Century Step)] (1987), which had already been shown as part of the exhibition WERK STATT SAMMLUNG in summer 2023.

The addition of “Century Step” to the title reveals that the bronze foot relates to another sculpture: in 1984, the artist conceived the figure Jahrhundertschritt [Century Step], which became an iconic artwork of the GDR as a symbol of the ideological totalitarianisms of the 20th century. Mattheuer had destroyed the plaster model of the large sculpture to prevent it from being recast. However, he was so fond of the foot that he kept it and had it cast as an independent sculpture.

Jahrhundertschritt [Century Step] depicts a male figure in a dynamic stride. The gestures of the left and right hands appear to reference the tension between political extremes. This can be interpreted as a manifestation of inner turmoil and the conflict-ridden history of the last century. The five-meter-high bronze cast, part of the Hasso Plattner Collection since 2012, is the largest of seven versions, some of which are located in the Haus der Geschichte, Bonn and in Mattheuer’s hometown of Reichenbach im Vogtland. Since June 2016, the sculpture has stood in the courtyard of the Museum Barberini, striding towards the southeast—toward the MINSK, where Mattheuer's Fuß [foot] is now located approximately 600 meters away, as the crow flies.