Dörte Wehmeyer
TRACES 2015 – 2018
Since 2010 I have worked exclusively on this permanent exhibition in Cala Llombards, Mallorca, a wild, beautiful countryside, overlooking the ocean. Conceived as a conceptual work in progress, it is being amplified and changed every year according to political, social and economic developments worldwide. It is man’s inhumanity to man that is shown in various topics: flight and exile, oppression and slavery, personal abuse, or political corruption due to financial greed. But I also want to show personal role models, whose fight for freedom give hope for more humanity and the chance for survival.
A CONCEPTUAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ART WORK IN PROGESS
Every word, every action, and every political event leaves a fingerprint in the whole realm of human existence. It shapes our individual, cultural, and political existence and shows the effect of man’s inhumanity to man through the chronicle of enumerable wars, through worldwide sexual abuse, and through irresponsible exploitation of human beings and natural resources.
On an individual level as a German artist, and due to our historic past, I have learned the importance of „never again“. Never again to look the other way, but to make human suffering visible. WE ARE THE PEOPLE. This cry for freedom was shouted in every town and in every city every Monday evening by the people of East Germany before it was heard in1989. It shows the incredible courage of individuals in their fight for more freedom, for more equality and for a better life.
Throughout my whole life as a conceptual artist I have tried to make this worldwide cry for freedom visible, because all over the globe there should be only one moral, ethical and religious concept the Leitmotif all individual and political action and that is:
THE DIGNITY OF MAN IS SACROSANCT.
Dörte Wehmeyer
TRACES 2010 – 2015
A CONCEPTUAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ART WORK IN PROGESS
Since 2010 I have worked exclusively on this permanent exhibition in Cala Llombards, Mallorca, a wild, beautiful countryside, overlooking the ocean. Conceived as a conceptual work in progress, it is being amplified and changed every year according to political, social and economic developments worldwide. It is man’s inhumanity to man that is shown in various topics: flight and exile, oppression and slavery, personal abuse, or political corruption due to financial greed. But I also want to show personal role models, whose fight for freedom give hope for more humanity and the chance for survival.
There are four main bodies of work: The labyrinth of steel, 35m by 30m has eight walkways of 10m of length and 3.10m of height. The six patios show different installations, as does the gigantic rock cave underneath the reflecting pool. The Star of David is also a walk-in installation of 10 by 10m, constantly showing different perspectives and angles of the same „truth“, depending on the visitor’s point of view.
The whole „GARDEN OF TOLERANCE“ is a personal reminder never to forget. It is a manifestation of East/West German history, as well as a chronicle of global political conflicts. But it also appeals to the creative powers of the individual to overcome boundaries and to tear down walls. And finally, it is to honor the courage and the power of all those people who have rightfully risen against dictatorship and oppression, because THE DIGNITY OF MAN IS SACROSANCT. This is the leitmotif of the whole exhibition, welded in big steel letters to a wall of the labyrinth, throwing shadows for a better future.
Dörte Wehmeyer
