Turm IV, 2019
wood, steel, rubber, concrete, fiberglass, plastic
217 x 205 x 568 cm

Turm IV pays tribute to someone else’s planned tribute, be it an ambiguous one (and never executed). Sketches by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) show a monument commemorating the 1524-25’s Great Peasant’s War, in which a third of 300.000 poorly armed peasants and farmers were slaughtered by the opposing aristocracy. It’s a tower of peasant’s attributes and symbols, crowned by a peasant posing as the resting Christ, stabbed in the back with a sword. It remains unclear whether Dürer’s concept was cynically mocking the peasants’ fate, or a sincere tribute to their cause. But as an artistic act, it breaks with the classical tradition of monument-building, and testifies to a world that has lost its unity. Meier transposes this method to the derelict Asiat terrain, by raising a column with abandoned objects. The lack of classification or even judgement over these objects, results in a plural interpretation: its reading depends on the socio-political and economical background of the viewer. Turm IV hovers between commemoration and caricature of Asiat’s military life.

Evelyn Simons


exhibition views Fallen empires and refound desires, Horst Arts & Music, Vilvoorde / BE
images by Jeroen Verrecht, Olmo Peeters