A tribute to Alexander Calder 2013

This is Arne Quinze's 'A Tribute to Alexander Calder', an installation constructed from wood. Quinze belongs to a generation of artists seeking to dismantle the artificial boundaries between art and life. Look closely and you will see a kind of organized chaos. This work takes the form of public art as a way to challenge the traditional spaces of artistic display and, perhaps, question the exclusivity of museum culture. Quinze wants to create spaces of interaction in the city. The title of the work is of course a cultural reference to the American artist Alexander Calder, a giant of 20th century sculpture. Calder famously invented the mobile, and it is possible to see Quinze's sculpture as a large-scale, architectural version of that kind of kinetic art. Understanding art like this requires us to think about its institutional and social context. What kind of social interactions does the artist hope to inspire, and how does his work relate to the broader history of public art? We might consult urban planning documents, art criticism, and other resources to understand this artwork better.