Statue of Limitations

Statue of Limitations, 2018 - 2022
Humboldtforum Berlin

Kang Sunkoo - an artist and architect living in Basel - won the art in architecture competition organised by the Humboldt Forum.

The work Statue of Limitations is a two-part black patinated bronze sculpture that stands in two places at the same time: In the staircase hall of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin-Mitte and on Nachtigalplatz in the African Quarter in Berlin-Wedding. The sculpture depicts a flagpole with a mourning flag at half-mast. Divided exactly halfway up, the lower half pierces the top ceiling of the Berlin Palace and the upper half the floor of Nachtigalplatz, exactly on the architectural axis of symmetry of both locations.

In the Volkspark Rehberge neighbouring Nachtigalplatz, a zoo-like facility was planned at the time of German colonialist activity, which was to exhibit people and animals from the colonies in captivity. Due to the outbreak of the First World War, this plan was not realised. The colonialist street names still characterise the town today, as does Nachitgalplatz, named after Gustav Nachtigal, who as Reichskommissar (Reichs Commissioner) was responsible for establishing the German colonies in Africa. The district government's plans to rename this square and two other streets have met with vehement opposition from some sections of the population.

In the Humboldt Forum, in the reconstructed palace of the German Empire and thus also the former architectural centre of German colonial rule, the "non-European collection" of the Stiftung Preussicher Kulturbesitz is exhibited today in the rooms of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art. These collections contain countless objects and human remains that were appropriated in a colonial context. The title Statue of Limitations is a variation of the term 'Statute of Limitations', which means 'limitation period' in the English legal language. Since the 1968 UN Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutes of Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, the prosecution of genocide has been exempt from the statute of limitations.

In 2018, Kang's contribution was awarded first prize by a majority independent jury in an open and anonymous art-in-architecture competition for the Humboldt Forum, organised by the federal government, against the voice of the user.