Heroes. Revered – misunderstood – forgotten
But who are these heroes made of stone? Who made them?
When the memorial to the heroes of the First World War was inaugurated on May 9, 1929, the depiction of the "fallen" caused controversy in Kassel. Some members of the public saw the figure as a defamation of the fallen heroes. Some referred to it as "pacifist filth" or the "Sautter corpse." The National Socialists even considered removing the sculpture.
When Pina and Via Lewandowsky presented their proposal for documenta IX in 1992, the traditionalist associations had reconciled with the "Fallen" sculpture. Identification with the figure had become so strong that a lawsuit was filed against the artistic action. The fallen, it was alleged, were being defamed by the documenta artwork, amounting to desecration of graves. The artists concealed Sautter's sculpture under a paraffin copy, which is now on display at the Museum for Sepulchral Culture. In this context, the malleable material can be seen as an analogy for the unreliability of human memory.
The "Heroes" tour begins as a brief journey through time at the Museum for Sepulchral Culture, featuring the documenta artwork by Pina and Via Lewandowsky. It then leads past Hans Sautter's memorial to the victims of fascism and back to his memorial on the slope leading down to the Karlsaue park. Along the way, the concept of the hero, as it manifested itself in the interaction with the memorial and the documenta artwork, is examined from various perspectives.
