18 - Isa Genzken

Isa Genzken Weltempfänger (Brabanter Straße) 1992 Concrete Approx. 25.5 x 20 x 14.5 cm. With antenna. Signed, dated and titled '"Brabanter Str." Isa Genzken 1992' on underside. - Traces of studio and minor traces of age. The present work is registered in the work archive of Isa Genzken, Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin Provenance Directly from the artist; private ownership, North Rhine-Westphalia A fully extended chrome telescopic antenna protrudes from a cast concrete block. Smooth sections on the block alternate with rough, irregular edges: On one side, a coarse-grained area contrasts a smooth, upright rectangular surface, along the edges of which the steel reinforcement is exposed. The other side features two circular indentations and a vertical groove. The antenna towers over its base by a considerable margin. Isa Genzken’s ‘Weltempfänger (Brabanter Straße)’ from 1992 belongs to a group of works created from 1986/87 onwards. The Weltempfänger represent an important part of the artist’s oeuvre and is among the artist’s best-known pieces. The concrete forms are designed to house radio sets, yet what appears to be a receiver, remains silent: only the antenna hints at a function that the solid block itself cannot fulfil. While the early versions were flat and device-like in design, the architectural aspect is more clearly evident in this work. The inscription refers to Brabanter Straße in Cologne, where Genzken lived and worked during those years, and anchors the work in a specific urban location. Concrete, steel reinforcement, antenna: Genzken combines architectural materials with an everyday object of communication. Using the most minimal of means, she creates a sculpture of great presence, in which heaviness and lightness, mass and line are convincingly balanced.