Man in a cube is a contemporary sculpture created by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in 2017 for the exhibition Luther and the Avant-Garde marking the quincentenary of the Reformation. It has been on permanent display in the courtyard of Lutherhaus Eisenach since October 2020. [1]
The sculpture consists of two concrete slabs (je 150 x 105 x 52 cm) aligned parallel to each other. The sides facing each other produce a cavity with the form of a seated man. The figure’s face bears the artist’s features.
With man in a cube, Ai Weiwei is dealing with the oppressive experiences of his eighty-one day secret imprisonment by authorities in the People’s Republic of China. [2] The artist himself described his work as “... a concrete block, which contains within it a single figure in solitude. That figure is the likeness of myself during my eighty-one days under secret detention in 2011. As an individual, once you have your idea and language, you can extend your existence through art.” Ideas and language are what sustained Ai Weiwei morally during his imprisonment. Ideas and language are what he finds intriguing about Martin Luther too: “Martin Luther is an important figure in German history, especially with his contributions towards language. He’s very impressive to me. An individual’s free expression is so important to our human development. I wanted to take part in this exhibition to memorialize him.” [3]
The sculpture was created in 2017 for the exhibition Luther and the Avant-Garde in Lutherstadt Wittenberg during the Reformation quincentenary festivities and was displayed together with other contemporary works of art at the Old Prison there from May 19 to November 1, 2017. The exhibition’s overarching theme was artistic treatment of Martin Luther’s ideas elaborated in his treatise On the Freedom of a Christian. [4]
The Stiftung Lutherhaus Eisenach had endeavored since 2017 to make the sculpture and “exceptional manifestation of contemporary Reformation commemoration” [5] permanently accessible to the public. Supported by numerous backers, the museum finally succeeded in acquiring the sculpture in 2019. Man in a cube was permanently installed in the courtyard of the Lutherhaus in August of 2020, the quincentenary of Luther’s On the Freedom of a Christian, and presented to the public in a ceremony on October 9, 2020. [6]
Wittenberg, is the fourth-largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, 60 kilometers (37 mi) north of Leipzig and 90 kilometers (56 mi) south-west of Berlin, and has a population of 46,008 (2018).
"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is one of the best known hymns by the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther, a prolific hymnwriter. Luther wrote the words and composed the hymn tune between 1527 and 1529. It has been translated into English at least seventy times and also into many other languages. The words are mostly original, although the first line paraphrases that of Psalm 46.
Katharina von Bora, after her wedding Katharina Luther, also referred to as "die Lutherin", was the wife of the German reformer Martin Luther and a seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation. Although little is known about her, she is often considered to have been important to the Reformation, her marriage setting a precedent for Protestant family life and clerical marriage.
Peter Weibel was an Austrian post-conceptual artist, curator, and new media theoretician. He started out in 1964 as a visual poet, then later moved from the page to the screen within the sense of post-structuralist methodology. His work includes virtual reality and other digital art forms. From 1999 he was the director of the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.
Johannes Bugenhagen, also called Doctor Pomeranus by Martin Luther, was a German theologian and Lutheran priest who introduced the Protestant Reformation in the Duchy of Pomerania and Denmark in the 16th century. Among his major accomplishments was organization of Lutheran churches in Northern Germany and Scandinavia. He has also been called the "Second Apostle of the North".
The Luther Bible is a German language Bible translation by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. A New Testament translation by Luther was first published in September 1522, and the completed Bible, containing a translation of the Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha, in 1534. Luther continued to make improvements to the text until 1545. It was the first full translation of the Bible into German that made use of Greek texts, not just their Latin Vulgate translations.
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, for "economic crimes". He was detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators.
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The Lutherhaus is a writer's house museum in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany. Originally built in 1504 as part of the University of Wittenberg, the building was the home of Martin Luther for most of his adult life and a significant location in the history of the Protestant Reformation. Luther was living here when he wrote his 95 Theses.
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg, and is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and international (English) courses leading to academic degrees such as BA, BSc, MA, MSc, doctoral degrees, and Habilitation.
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Peter Schwickerath is a German sculptor.
Lutherhaus Eisenach is one of the oldest surviving half-timbered houses in Thuringia. Tradition holds that Martin Luther lived there with the Cotta family during his schooldays in Eisenach from 1498 to 1501. The Lutherhaus has been one of the most important historic Reformation sites since the 19th century and, as such, was designated a "European cultural heritage site" in 2011. The Lutherhaus has been run as a cultural history museum since 1956.
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