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53 Degrees 30 North

53 Degrees 30 North

Thorsten Goldberg // 2019

Stainless steel
Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage

About

53°30’N is a collection of five topographic models depicting mountain landscapes from locations sitting on the same latitude (53°) as Edmonton. They are mounted upright on the facing sides of the lanterns on the roof of the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage building.

The models depict locations in five geographic areas: Mount Chown (Alberta), the crater of Mount Okmok (Umnak Island in the Aleutians), Zhupanovsky Crater (Kamchatka, Russia), an unnamed landscape near Dacaodianzi, Heilongjiang Sheng (China) and Mweelrea (Connaught, Ireland). The artistic concept is inspired by what the artist calls the “globe game”- placing your finger on a specific location and rotating the globe to see what other locations lie along a specific latitude.

The artwork was selected following a two-stage process by a committee of community representatives, architects, artists, City of Edmonton personnel, and project team members. Six artists were shortlisted and their proposals were shared with the public via online survey. More than 3,300 Edmontonians responded to concepts by Goldberg, Cecil Balmond, Jacek Jarnuskiewicz, Ned Kahn, Albert Paley, and realities:united.

53º30’N received positive comments from many participants, who enjoyed the connection Goldberg created between Edmonton and the world. Comments such as “Thorsten Goldberg’s artwork is really exciting because it is based on a playful idea on one hand, and it creates a link between Edmonton and the world on the other” were common, with one participant stating that “Northern cities are often dismissed as ‘isolated,’ but this piece connects us to other beautiful northern cities across the world. It reminds us of our city’s geographical location — a small but special spot on a vast globe ‑and it pushes us to think beyond what we immediately see.”

Click to read an Artist Q&A with Thorsten Goldberg

Thorsten Goldberg

Thorsten Goldberg was born in 1960 in Dinslaken, West-Germany and has lived and worked as an artist in Berlin since 1990.

He is Initiator and Co-Publisher of Public Art Wiki, an Imagined Library, the Germany-wide internet archive for art in public space in the German-speaking-area .

He is Co-Publisher of Kunst in der Großsiedlung (art in the large-housing-area) Marzahn-Hellersdorf a printed documentation of more than 460 public works, 320 pages and author of several texts on public art in Berlin.

From 1999 to 2014 Goldberg was spokesperson for the Office for Art in Public Space of the Kulturwerk, bbk-berlin. He sits on advisory committees as well – since 2012 member of the BAK, Advisory Committee of the Senate for Culture of Berlin; since 2014 member of the KÖR, Office for Art in Public Space, Vienna/Austria where he is involved in the election and organization of competitions for art in public.

Schools:
from 1965 – 1980 in Cologne, Leverkusen, Titisee-Neustadt/DE
and in Jeffersonville-Youngsville, New York/USA

Study:
from 1984 – 1991 sculpture (class of Inge Mahn) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart/DE

Awards:
1990 Forum-Junger-Kunst-Award, Kunsthalle Kiel, Museum Wolfsburg, Museum Bochum/DE
1991 Senate of Berlin-Stipend for Photography, Berlin/DE
1998 City of Wiesbaden-Art-Stipend, Wiesbaden/DE

Teaching:
1994 – 2001 Adjunct Professor for experimental Sculpture and for Photography, Freie Kunstschule Berlin/DE
2001 – 2003 Adjunct Professor for Photography in Public Space, Alice-Salomon University of Applied Sciences, Berlin/DE
2002 Visiting Professor for the Sculpture Project “umfluegen” with master class students of the Kunstakademie Muenster/DE
2003 – 2004 Visiting Professor at Kunstakademie Munich/DE
2003 – 2008 Adjunct Professor for Art in Public Space at the Art Academy Linz/AT
2007 – 2009 Professor (repres.) for arts and media at the Muthesius Art Academy in Kiel/DE

Works in Public Collections:
The City of Bergen/NO; The city of Gdansk/PL; The Land of Berlin; The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development; The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Bonn; The Mazovian Centre of Contemporary Art – Elektrownia in Radom/PL; The City of Lippstadt; The City of Heidenheim; The Charité University Clinique Berlin; The Martin-Gropius-Hospital Eberswalde; The Daimler Art Collection; The Art-Museum Heidenheim; The collection Gerisch Sculpture Park, Neumünster/DE; The collection Stefan Haupt, Berlin/DE

Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage

53 Degrees 30 North

About

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