Art installation “Maria Luiko, Mourners, 1938” by Michaela Melián at the Neptune Fountain in the Old Botanical Garden will be on display until the end of 2023.
The art installation “Maria Luiko, Mourners, 1938” by Michaela Melián at the Neptune Fountain in the Old Botanical Garden will be on display for longer than planned. The work shown since September is part of the series “Past Statements. Monuments under discussion”, that connects public art and public history. Michaela Melián’s wrapping of the Neptune Fountain addresses its Nazi connection and contrasts it with the tribute to the Nazi-persecuted Jewish artist Maria Luiko. Maria Luiko was the stage name of the illustrator and artist Marie Luise Kohn, who was born in Munich in 1904. She was deported to Kaunas by the SS in November 1941 and murdered there. A street in Neuhausen was recently renamed after her. The installation was vandalized at the end of October. Melián repaired the work but left the traces of vandalism visible. The city has now decided to show the work until the end of next year.