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Yet another theft has occurred at Skulptur Projekte Münster. On August 1, the decennial exhibition’s organizers announced that technical equipment that is part of Koki Tanaka’s video work Provisional Studies: Workshop #7 How to Live Together and Sharing the Unknown (2017) had been stolen. This is the third criminal incident that has occurred in this year’s edition of the Projekte, after the vandalism of Nicole Eisenman’s site-specific installation Sketch for a Fountain (2017) and the theft of an LED painting that is part of Ei Arakawa’s work Harsh Citation, Harsh Pastoral, Harsh Münster (2017). (The latter has been restored to completion by the artist, who installed a replacement LED panel a month and a half after the theft.)
Regarding Tanaka’s artwork, a spokesperson for the organizers stated that they are “trying to replace it quickly but it is complicated because there is a lot of techincal equipment,” adding that the “police are investigating it as a normal burglary,” and that the work will be temporarily closed to visitors until it is complete again.
To explain the continuous mishaps, the spokesperson pointed out that “art in a public space is at risk” at all times, but that the section where Tanaka’s video work is shown does not have a night guard because “that would go against the concept” of the exhibition. She also cited thefts and instances of vandalism that occurred in previous iterations of the Projekte.
Koki Tanaka’s work documents eight Münster residents from different backgrounds taking part in a workshop. They perform a variety of tasks to explore how to live together.
The fifth edition of Skulptur Projekte Münster runs until October 1, 2017.
Je-Seung Lee is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.
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