Maria Nordman

Maria Nordman
For a New City (Serralves Museum & A Working Farm), 2000−01−
Trees (Gingko Biloba and Cupressus Semprevirens), slate, metal, water, grass
c. 824 m2
Coll. Fundação de Serralves — Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto


The work of Maria Nordman (Görlitz, Germany, 1943) involves the participation of others in public space. For this reason the concept of site-specific is not sufficient to define her oeuvre. It is, rather, notion of time that is a mandatory reference in the construction of a wider concept, which the artist calls time-specific.

The site for For a New City (Serralves Museum & A Working Farm) was chosen in dialogue with people involved in the daily life of the institution, with people from different generations living in Porto, and with the characteristics of the space itself. In the artist’s own words the agents of the sculpture are also ‘the sun, the moon, the rain, the earth, the grass, the people, the Gingko Biloba and Cuperssus Sempervirens trees, a bath for birds and humans, and the slate’. The work consists of a table with a fountain, four slate benches and ninety-four trees forming two contiguous walkways, the space between each tree being wide enough for a person to go through. The changes resulting from climate conditions and daytime variations, immediately perceived by someone inside the piece, are overlapped by changes occurring from the growth of trees, which will happen over a much longer period and will naturally and systematically redesign the profile and structure of the sculpture. This notion of change is reflected in the artist’ dating of the work as open-ended.

For a New City (Serralves Museum & A Working Farm) was specifically conceived for the Serralves Park during Porto 2001: European Capital of Culture.