Kathrin Schlegel is a German installation and visual artist creating research-based, site-specific, and conceptual works exhibited internationally. Her projects explore spatial perception, human experience, and site-specific narratives.
   Kathrin Schlegel
Bitte nicht wieder klauen
2011, polished stainless steel sculpture, height approx. 85 cm, on existing pedestal (87cm x 50 cm x 60 cm) from which the original work was stolen. Concept in collaboration with Hagen Betzwieser. Permanent work in public space commissioned by the municipality of Utrecht, the Netherlands.

The sculpture De Balspelers, two people engaged in a ballgame, by Jan Spiering, was stolen from its pedestal in Tuindorp, Utrecht, in 2008. Schlegel created a new artwork for the ‘orphaned’ pedestal utilizing the idea of ‘absent presence’ of the ball and the theme of the homo ludens as a tribute to Spiering’s sculpture. Suggesting the popular magic trick of the floating ball under a cloth, Schlegel’s polished steel sculpture shows the contours of a ball under a supple cloth, but when it is viewed from below it proves to be hollow. The iron stump on the pedestal bears testimony to the theft.


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Bitte nicht wieder klauen

Updated 05.01.26