Totem

About this artwork.

A special object can be found on the bridge in front of the Groninger Museum that connects the station with the city center and the entrance to the museum. Difficult to miss due to its cheerful shapes and colors, the totem-like sculpture is nevertheless passed by a lot of traffic on the busy bridge. The well-known 'totem' pole designed by the Italian architect and designer Giorgio Gregori and Alessandro Mendini (architect and designer of the Groninger Museum) lies on the border between art, design and utility object. Something that is not so strange for these makers. Mendini himself said the following about this: “I am a designer who applies the methods characteristic of an artist to architecture and design, and conversely I am a painter who uses the methods characteristic of a designer to painting. In my work I combine these and other disciplines (…), between which I do not experience the slightest dividing line, but rather an enormous amount of room for maneuver.”

The pole not only serves as a stand-alone work of art, landmark and welcome, but also as a resting place and abstracted map of the museum. If you turn your head a quarter turn, you can recognize the golden tower of the museum in the yellow shape, in which the depot is located. The arms form the bridge from the station to the city center, the legs the Coop Himmelb(l)au pavilion and finally the round Starck Pavilion can be recognized in the face of the work.

About the assignment.

This work was offered on October 29, 1994 by the Vereniging van Vrienden van het Groninger Museum on the occasion of the opening of the new building, which was also designed by Alessandro Mendini.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Giorgio Gregori
  Alessandro Mendini

• District
  Centrum

• Year of creation
  1994

• Art type
  Freestanding sculpture

• Material
  Metal, Fiberglass

• Dimensions
  h 5,40 x b 1,70 x d 1,70 m