There is a gift-wrapped present in front of the Kooperationseinrichtung in the Diamantstraße. Nicely parcelled in gleaming gold wrapping, it awakens the imagination of the viewer. What might be inside? It must be something precious, something special, otherwise it wouldn’t be so splendidly wrapped. But Gabriele Obermaier doesn’t reveal the secret of what is hidden inside. “It is always exactly what the children happen to want at the moment,” explains the artist. The idea for the parcel came when she found a package, which stirred her curiosity, in her basement. She opened it, saw what was inside, wrapped it up again and used it as a model for her sculpture. For the realization of the work, she enlarged the mysterious contents, wrapped everything once more, and cast the form in bronze.

To wrap something, to remove it from the gaze of the viewer while still drawing attention to the form is an artistic strategy used by Obermaier. For her sculpture in front of the Federal Social Court in Oberkassel, she sewed a down-sized casing out of felt and then cast this in metal. The hard and the soft, the warm and the cold, the wrapping and the revealing are exciting contradictions that Obermaier also combines in her “Geschenk” (present). In choosing the colour, she used the cool, silvery and shining façade of the building as a counterpoint to the warm golden tone of the sculpture.

The Geschenk is not large and not small, just the right size to be climbed on. One can touch it, feel the coolness of the metal, or simply look at it and enjoy the play of shadow in the folds and the light refractions on the surface. Located in the front of the day-care centre, it extends a cheerful welcome, one which catches the attention of all the children.

Cornelia Gockel