Plastik
Plastik is a small porcelain sculpture depicting a fight between two sumo wrestlers. Leon Kahane created this work after a prototype created by his parents, who were activists against right-wing extremism in the 1990s in East Germany. The socialist realism in force at the time imposed on artists a “realism” whose primary requirement was the exaltation of reality and that which prefigures a bright future for the country. In post-war East Germany, the fighter thus embodied the class struggle that communism wanted to put an end to. A large number of these sculptures are held in the Museum of Contemporary Art collection in Magdeburg, Germany. When Leon Kahane was invited to exhibit there, he chose to present Plastik and Untitled (2016), four photographs of wrestler sculptures selected from the museum’s catalogue.
Text written by Rosanne Moulin as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin
Exhibition
Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e. V, Berlin (Allemagne)
from 09 Oct 2016 to 29 Jan 2017