Monument to Escape
Dennis Oppenheim
Steel, laminated glass and various materials. 6 x 7 x 2,80 mts.
1999–2001
Three geometric forms that allude to clandestine detention centers are reconfigures by the artist in order that they might express freedom instead of connoting imprisonment. In this way, the architectural forms are liberated from the function imposed upon them (to operate as a prison) and are transformed into artistic forms that lack a specific function and are thus able to inspire multiple meanings.
Dennis Oppenheim (Electric City, USA, 1938-2011) He studied at the School of Arts and Crafts at Stanford University in Oakland, California. He received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1971 and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1974 and 1981. From 1969 on, he exhibited in the world’s leading museums including the Tate Gallery, the Whitney Museum the moma and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, among others.
Several of his works can be found installed in public spaces. Among these, the pieces in the Laumier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, Missouri (1984), the Olympic Park in Seoul, Korea (1988), and in Mitzpe Ramon, Israel (1995) deserve special mention, as well as those located on 5th Avenue in New York City, at the Universität Freiburg, Germany and in the Navalcarnero neighborhood’s public space, in Madrid (2007). He participated in the Venice Biennial in Italy and in the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial in South Africa in 1997. The following year, his work was presented at the xxiv San Pablo Biennial in Brazil, and in 2003 he participated in the 2nd Valencia Biennial. Between late 2004 and mid-2005, a retrospective exhibition titled «Dennis Oppenheim, selected works 1968-2004» was presented at the Museo Fundación Cristóbal Gabarrón de Valladolid, the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, the Sala de Exposiciones Bancaixa in Valencia and in the Casa de la Provincia in Seville. In 2007 he was awarded a prize for career achievement at the Vancouver Sculpture Biennial in Canada.
