Maria Eichhorn

In 1997 Maria Eichhorn investigated the ownership structure of property in Münster. During her research for the project she purchased a vacant plot of land covering approx. 105 m² on Tibusstraße at the corner of Breul for 126,000 DM, which was later transferred back into municipal ownership.¹ The purchase of this plot underwent all the usual procedures for such transactions, from an assessment of all purchasable empty lots and their inspection to the final choice of a property.² Subsequently, the artist documented the change of ownership and its registration in the land register. She exhibited the purchase contract as the outcome of her project-in-progress during Skulptur. Projekte in Münster 1997 in the Westfälische Landesmuseum.

Eichhorn’s artistic practice incorporates targeted interventions in the context of social, political and economic situations, and the discussions that arise from them. After first establishing that art in the public domain requires its own space and then investigating the ownership structure of property in Münster, the artist drew attention to changes in notions of public and private space in the course of history and their relative symbolic and material value. She conveyed this development in the form of “artistic field research”.

Daniel Friedt

¹ Cf. p. 2 of the land purchase contract, in: Klaus Bußmann, Kasper König and Florian Matzner (eds.), Skulptur. Projekte in Münster 1997, exhib. cat. Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1997, p. 137.

² Cf. Maria Eichhorn, “Erwerb des Grundstücks Ecke Tibusstraße / Breul, Gemarkung Münster, Flur 5”, in: ibid., p. 137.