FRIEDRICH KUNATH
INCLUDE ME OUT

BUNTSOCKENPARK, THALHEIM, ERZGEBIRGE, GERMANY
PERMANENT INSTALLATION SINCE 2022

BEGEHUNGEN FESTIVAL

Along the so-called Purple Path in Buntsockenpark for this year’s Begehungen festival in Thalheim, is Friedrich Kunath’s INCLUDE ME OUT. The sculpture, one of over seventy works along the walking route, is a group of six bronzed spruce trees whose hanging branches are holding hands with one another, forming a circle. On the periphery, a seventh bronzed tree, appears to have been left out of this arboreal communion – there is an outside even in the outdoors.

Kunath hails from the region, and after working and living for years in Los Angeles, the pull of German Romantic landscape traditions remained a strong one, posing as playful backdrops in many of his works. INLCUDE ME OUT is installed at a unique point in front of a villa, offering the kind of vista over the rolling hills and nearby mountains that Kunath has routinely featured in his paintings.

© All images Ernesto Uhlmann

The installations will remain on view until 2025, at which time nearby Chemnitz will be seated as the Capital of European Culture. On 13 August 2022, the works will be inaugurated for the festival and the artist will be present.

FEATURED ARTIST

FRIEDRICH KUNATH
Friedrich Kunath (b. 1974 in Chemnitz, Germany) lives and works in Los Angeles, USA. His paintings are inspired by German Romanticism and American pop culture in equal measure. Kunath studied at the University of Arts in Braunschweig but decided soon afterwards to leave Germany. His oeuvre includes not only paintings but also sculptures and installations, through which he explores recurring themes such as longing, loneliness, euphoria, and humor. 

Kunath’s works have been exhibited in solo shows at various renowned institutions including Sammlung Philara in Dusseldorf, Germany, the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Germany, the Sprengel Museum ...
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