Christian Odzuck

In his work Christian Odzuck focuses on architectural fragments as well as urban building processes. His basic artistic approach is the reuse and further development of building materials, which he reassembles as accessible structures. The original buildings as well as individual elements, reused materials, or the memories thereof are made visible and aesthetically tangible for visitors.

The point of departure for his Skulptur Projekte piece was Münster’s former revenue office, the Oberfinanzdirektion (OFD) building complex, which was torn down in 2016/17. It was built in the 1960s from plans developed by the architecture firm HPP Heinrich-Petschnigg & Partner. Odzuck placed his work OFF OFD on the now abandoned space, getting his bearings from the clear, modern use of form in the now demolished administrative building as well as from its former dimensions and floor plan. The centrepiece of the work was the stairway, which is conspicuous in an architectural sense. Originally, it was at the main entrance of the OFD, but Odzuck reconstructed it as a mock-up, imitating its function as a walkway yet expanding it from a conceptual and structural point of view. He recycled the demolished building’s materials as a ballast bed and added on modular prefab concrete bricks made of leftover cement from previous building projects. In addition to this, the artist translocated and reactivated the 23-metre-long street light from the OFD car park.

In reference to Lucius Burckhardt’s science of strollology, Odzuck investigates urban places on his strolls through town, exploring their political, social, and historical subtexts and functions, which he documents in essays, studies, and research books. His publications trace these continuing expeditions, mapping the impressions of his walks and, at the same moment, serving as his working medium, a documentation and a true experience. Subsequently, the artist converts these concepts and visions from a two-dimensional surface to a real three-dimensional space. Odzuck understands construction phases as process-oriented, artistic strategies that challenge the possibilities of a space and render them visible. For Skulptur Projekte the artist consciously focused on urban structures and situations that were faced with impending demolition or repurposing. By placing his work in front of the anti-panorama of the abandoned construction site, Odzuck alluded to that fragile state of limbo between demolition and new construction and to the urban development potential and social opportunities that could emerge from it.

Clara Napp