Der Esel kommt mit

In the organizer's words:

THE DONKEY COMES ALONG
from Cologne to Cluj-Napoca

A travelogue by IVO WEBER
with guests of the trail on the topic of "Art in public space"

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2024
on the Ebertplatz/Passagen

from 4 pm
with coffee and souls

from 5 pm

Welcoming address
Dr. Thomas Sternberg, Kunststiftung NRW
Astrid Bardenheuer, Cultural Office City of Cologne
Dr. Ralf Heinen, Mayor of the City of Cologne

Astrid Bardenheuer, artothek Cologne | Lutz Fritsch, artist, Cologne | Joe Halbekann, City Archive, Esslingen | Zoltan Kovacs, artist, Clu-Napoca | Philipp Morlock, artist, BARAC, Mannheim | Maria Reitter-Kollmann, curator, OK, Linz | Guido Schlimbach, Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne | Zoltan Sebestyén, artist, Budapest

Performance
Armin Chodzinski, artist, Ludwigshafen/Hamburg
Zoltan Kovacs, artist, Cluj-Napoca/Oradea

In spring 2024, Cologne-based artist Ivo Weber set off on a three-month journey from Cologne to Cluj-Napoca, formerly Cluj-Napoca and Cologne's twin city in Romania.

He traveled at a very slow pace on an electric vehicle, accompanied by a sculpture of a donkey. Like a herald, he delivered messages about art in public spaces to friends and colleagues and to Cologne's twin city Cluj-Napoca. Weber made many stops along the way to see works of art in public spaces in almost every major city along the route and to be personally introduced to them by local art enthusiasts: The selected works were explained and commented on on site by the respective ambassadors over freshly brewed coffee. They talked about the journey through five European countries, about public art and about the different messages from the many different cities.

All the artworks visited and the people who presented them to the herald with the donkey have been collected in a digital archive. This is how they were brought to Cluj-Napoca and from there back to Cologne. An event is now being held on Ebertplatz to mark the occasion.