Olaf Metzel: From the TV to the Fridge

The Social Reliefs of Olaf Metzel With his work group of aluminium works, Olaf Metzel has not simply reintroduced the genre of relief in ­contemporary discourse in a surprising and ­confident way, he also reconnects with his own earlier work, in which he had already expanded on this parti­cular art ­historical subject. The present volume follows this arc in a very clear way, owing, in particular, to materials and texts by the artist printed here for the first time. It begins with the well-known work »Türkenwohnung ­Abstand 12.000,- DM VB«, in which the artist adver­tised in Berlin in 1982 the lease of an apartment where be­forehand, he had »hacked into the walls« and had left a swastika in the main room. Unforgettable and to date still good for public outrage is the sculpture, a wreath made of concrete, leant against the wall of the Kunst­verein Württemberg in Stuttgart in 1984 under the ­coarsely brushed on word ?Stammheim?. And finally with its new serie of aluminium works Olaf Metzel ­presents us a ­social relief of the present American reality.... Mehr