Combining ceramics with Murano glass, wood and marble, Linde Burkhardt has produced seven life-sized and out-sized sculptural objects as free ceramic works.
Designer Linde Burkhardt is showing in collaboration with Die Neue
Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich – her project ‘Die
Mitgift der Prinzessin von Trapezunt’ (The Dowry of the Princess of
Trebizond). Combining ceramics with Murano glass, wood and marble, she
has produced seven life-sized and out-sized sculptural objects as free
ceramic works. The group of works translates the mythical legend of the
Princess of Trebizond into a postmodern statement on the connection
between Orient and Occident.
‘On her long artistic path Linde Burkhardt has attained the most mature and
profound expression of her creativity to date.’ (Alessandro Mendini)
Adjectives such as multifaceted, refined and numerous describe the highly
stacked elements arranged into seven steles and embodying the value of a
royal dowry: Like monuments, they represent seven cities of the Empire of
Trebizond. The base material is ceramic, complemented by glass, wood and
marble. The surface and structure lend each of the elements their own
presence and individuality. Defined less by form and more by their content
or symbolic value, the objects do not have a clearly designated function. At
once abstract and sensual, they encourage the observer to use their
imagination and make free associations.
The legend
The Empire of Trebizond was located between Byzantium and Georgia on
the south coast of the Black Sea and enjoyed an economic and cultural
heyday in the 13th and 14th centuries. The court of the Komnenos emperors
became the last refuge of Greek-Byzantine culture in Asia Minor, a hub of
the trade routes between West and East.
Empress Johanna reigned between 1330 and 1347; her daughter Esther
was, upon her mother’s wish, to be married to the king of Portugal. He was
known as young, handsome and particularly bold. Johanna sent
messengers to the king with a likeness of Esther and many valuable gifts.
The king consented to the marriage and sent his own messengers back to
Trebizond bearing his portrait and even more valuable gifts. The princess
then set out, accompanied by several eunuchs, on the long voyage to the
western edge of the world, as it was known then. As the empress was
unsure whether her daughter would ever see her homeland again, she
commissioned artists and artisans to make by way of a dowry seven steles
that represented Esther’s seven favorite cities in her homeland, namely
Amisius, Amastris, Heraclea Pontica, Kerasus, Side, Sinope, and Tios.
Die Neue Sammlung wishes to thank artist Linde Burkhardt for the
generous donation of ‘The Dowry of the Princess of Trebizond’.
Image: Linde Burkhardt, The Dowry of the Princess of Trebizond, 2010. Photo: Die Neue Sammlung (A. Laurenzo)
Further information:
Dr. Corinna Rösner
Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich
T +49 (0)89 272725-0
E-Mail: presse@die-neue-sammlung.de
Tine Nehler M.A. | Head of Press Department
Pinakothek der Moderne
T +49 (0)89 23805-1321 | F +49 (0)89 23805-1304
E-Mail: presse@pinakothek.de
Opening: September 24, 2014, 7 p.m. Artist Linde Burkhardt will be present. Moreover Prof. Bazon Brock will be speaking, Thinker in Service
and artist, founder of Denkerei/Amt für Arbeit an unlösbaren
Problemen (Thinkery/Society for work on unsolvable problems)
with the Institut für theoretische Kunst, Universalpoesie und
Prognostik (Institute for theoretical art, universal poetry and
prognosis).
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