The Art Doctor Who Saves Rusting Sculptures

Outdoor art does not last forever. In Hamburg, rain, wind and ice expose the limits of materials that can look timeless inside a museum. Steel rusts, sprayed concrete crumbles, electronics fail and plastic letters can fall from railway bridges.

Markus Lohmann, 55, works for Hamburg’s cultural authorities, repairing artworks displayed in public spaces. He is presented as an expert in both art and bad weather, a fitting role during the partly rainy Hamburg Art Week.

One of the works he helped preserve was Franz Erhard Walther’s “Sieben Orte für Hamburg,” a series of steel plates installed in the city about 40 years ago. People can stand on the plates, which offer small vantage points in everyday urban surroundings. Each carries a different word. “Zeit” lies by the Binnenalster, while “Ort” stands in front of the Kunsthalle.

“

I still know Walther from my art studies.

The plate marked “Richtung” once stood near the City-Hof high-rises by Hamburg’s main railway station. When the City-Hof was demolished, the artwork disappeared from its location. It had not been scrapped, however. The cultural authorities secured it and stored it in a hall on Veddel. The former site was later covered by the new Johann Kontor building, leaving the city with a question: where should the work go next?

Lohmann decided to ask the artist. “I still know Walther from my art studies,” he said. Together with the responsible official at the cultural authority, he proposed an alternative location. Walther, now 87, traveled by ICE from Fulda to Hamburg to examine it. “He looked at the street, studied aerial photographs and connecting axes, then selected the new location,” Lohmann said. “Richtung” now stands at Deichtorplatz, in front of the southern end of the Johann Kontor. Lohmann has also refreshed the plant islands by artist Tita Giese nearby.

“

He looked at the street, studied aerial photographs and connecting axes, then selected the new location.