Planting event with artist Ben Wagin
News from 04/19/2021
The Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Berlin-based performance artist Ben Wagin commemorate an art intervention from 1976 with the planting of three trees in the outdoor space of the Neue Nationalgalerie.
In 1976, performance artist Ben Wagin planted two black pines at the Neue Nationalgalerie in honor of the gallery's director at the time, Dieter Honisch. Both trees had to be felled in 2015 so that the extensive refurbishment of the building could take place. Today, three silver maples were planted there in the presence of the artist and the minister of state for culture, Monika Grütters.
Ben Wagin (b. 1929) has been a central figure on Berlin's cultural scene and an influence on its public face through his performance art and other activities since the 1960s. In the course of those decades, he has created an idiosyncratic body of work that stands at odds with the art establishment and is often interdisciplinary, with a strong social and sociopolitical focus. His work as a sculptor or draftsman and his nature-related art interventions have repeatedly attracted great attention as symbols of the preservation of a living environment threatened by technology and civilization. In this, he has repeatedly received acknowledgment and support from leading political figures such as Willy Brandt, Walter Scheel, Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Rita Süssmuth, and Johannes Rau.
“Not belonging – it was exactly this feeling that always appealed to me about Berlin. Doing things that are not really wanted. Although I think that they should be done.” Ben Wagin