Gregor Schneider
[1] In 2001, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for his infamous work Totes Haus u r exhibited at the German Pavilion.
[citation needed] In 2001, Gregor Schneider won the "Golden Lion" at the 49th Biennale in Venice, with his solo exhibition, "Totes Haus u r Venedig 2001".
[5] Udo Kittelmann, at that time, director of the Kölnischen Kunstverein invited the artist to create solo exhibition in the German pavilion.
[6] Within three months time Schneider built a Totes Haus u r inside the pavilion, he transported by ship a total of 24 original rooms using100 packing pieces with a combined weight of 150 tons from Rheydt to Venice; Schneider refers to the rooms, which he has built out of the Haus u r or which have been rebuilt at another place, as Totes Haus u r.[7][6] Schneider rebuilt the rooms inside the German pavilion into a similar house with double walls and double floors on the ground in a house just as he did in Rheydt.
Cube Venice 2005 was intended to be an independent sculpture in form, function and appearance, inspired by the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest place of Islam, the destination of millions of believers who make the pilgrimage every year.
Under the artistic direction of the curator, Dr Hubertus Gaßner, director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, different aspects of a painting from 1878 to 1935 were analyzed in an exhibition entitled "The Black Square – Hommage to Malevich".
Ahmet Yazici, the deputy president of the alliance of the Islamic communities in North Germany, congratulated the artist "on his project which fosters understanding amongst international cultures".
Schneider made the following remark about the work: "The sculpture demands something from every participant (...) The box summons us all, it allows me to look past the critical reporting and to call on the public, something I didn't have to do before.
This to the exhibition place syntonized artwork questions "the ideal of a casual, egalitarian leisure-loving society", even there "elsewhere beachballers and backpackers, marathon swimmers and wedding couples define the image".
[citation needed] From November 8, 2008, to September 6, 2009, Gregor Schneider's 14 meter high, black outdoor sculpture "END" was accessible to the public.
Before walking through the "END" the visitor had to sign a release form that stated that they understood they were entering of their own accord into an environment with "steep ladders, narrow and/or totally dark rooms which may cause physical and/or mental impairment".
In Dead End, the artist has situated himself in a theoretical no man’s land at the point of contact between the vestiges of the traditional house that once occupied the site of the museum in Mostoles and the present building itself.
The concept of his earlier rooms is shifted here to hallways and corridors that lead the visitor to disconcerting spaces that include environments lifted from the house u r and other projects.
Politicians of several German political parties, the CDU, FDP and Die Grünen, voiced their opinions accusing Schneider of "abusing of artistic freedom" calling his plans an "attempt at provocation" and a "half-baked idea".
He wants to lead death out of the social taboo with this public dying room and to make it into a positive experience similar to the birth of a human being.
