Bewegtes Tanzgeschmeide
1960/70, Hans Arp
Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck – Forecourt
The monumental bronze sculpture Bewegtes Tanzgeschmeide (»Moving Dance Jewellery«; 1960/70) in Rolandseck forms the starting point of the Riverside Sculpture Park in Remagen. The sculpture was placed on the forecourt in front of the Bahnhof Rolandseck in 1970 on the occasion of an extensive Arp retrospective. From then on it served as the landmark of the artists´ station and subsequently that of the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck.
About the work
There are three versions of Arp's sculpture Bewegtes Tanzgeschmeide, of which the one at the Arp Museum, dating from 1970, is the largest. It is based on an original design from 1960. This original preliminary version of the sculpture was smaller, but the first enlargement was produced in 1961.
In 1962 this smaller version made a notable contribution to the success of one of the first public art projects at the »Festival dei due Mondi« in Spoleto in Italy. Based on an agreement with Hans Arp – and authorised by Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach – the new enlargement was produced in 1970 after the artist's death.
There are three versions of Arp's sculpture Bewegtes Tanzgeschmeide, of which the one at the Arp Museum, dating from 1970, is the largest.
Bewegtes Tanzgeschmeide is one of the so-called »Schwellenplastiken«. These »threshold sculptures« consisted of a series of relief sculptures on which Arp worked in a concentrated manner from the end of the 1950s. In contrast to the organic forms of his »Rundplastiken« or »round sculptures«, the »threshold sculptures« are more architectural in shape. They are reduced to being viewed either from the front or from the back. Empty forms – like the stylised navel of the Bewegtes Tanzgeschmeide – break up the flatness and challenge the viewer to involve the surrounding nature as a component of the sculpture.
About Hans Arp
Hans Arp was born in Strasbourg in Alsace in 1886 and died in Basel in 1966. He was a painter, poet and sculptor. In 1916 Hans Arp was one of the co-founders of the Dada movement in Zurich, a protest movement against existing social and aesthetic norms. He is also considered to be a pioneer of an inimitable organic-abstract design language which is directed by the constant processes of growth and transformation in nature.