The work by the German artist Martin Kippenberger, Zuerst die Füsse, a crucified green frog – about one metre (three feet) high – on a cross gripping a mug of beer on one side and an egg on the other, has stirred a neverending controversy in the staunchly Roman Catholic country – simply Italy .
Bishop Wilhelm Egger criticized the work, also regional governor Luis Durnwalder : the sculpture could be perceived as a provocation by the people of the Alto Adige region, which is 99 percent Catholic. And Volkspartei …
Add to that today : Franz Pahla’ hunger strike as an act of protest to remove the “Frog” before the Pope Benedikt XVI ’s holiday in South Tyrol. The Pope will will spend his summer vacation in the seminary of Bressanone in Valle Isarco.
On May 24th Museion had inaugurate its new building, designed by the Berlin studio of KSV Architects: Krüger, Schuberth, Vandreike : the front and rear facades are largely transparent, and place the city’s historical center in dialog with some of its more recent areas, as well as with the meadows that flank the Talvera River.
What surprise me most ABOVE ALL is the Museum’s Art Collection: very good – almost a MIRACLE (for Italy) – where you can find some pretty interesting works of contemporary art. One is Zuerst die Füsse by Kippenberger, who died in 1997 aged 44.
