Veit Stratmann - For Porto

Veit Stratmann
Para o Porto [For Porto], 2001
Painted iron (2 elements)
110 x 105 x 84 cm (each)
Coll. Fundação de Serralves — Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto. Gift of the artist

Consisting of two iron structures, Para o Porto resembles permanent urban furniture which confronts passersby. In the artist’s own words: ‘They offer the possibility of passersby to choose whether they are concerned by the status of the structures they encounter, to choose how to qualify their status, to name the use they can make of them and to choose the distance they want to establish between the structures and themselves’.
Conceived for ‘Squatters/Ocupações’, an exhibition co-produced by the Serralves Foundation, Sociedade Porto 2001 — Capital Europeia da Cultura, and the Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, the work was initially displayed at the Palácio de Cristal, in Porto. It was installed in Serralves Park in 2005.