Soccer smothering Germany

Nürnberg organized a grand public art exhibition this year called "The Large Piece of Turf" and there are pieces by different artists all around the town. They've been up since early May and stay up until July 9, the last day of the Cup.

One in particular created great controversy and is called "Auf Wiedersehen" by Olaf Metzel. Metzel put together a spiral of soccer stadium seats perhaps 30 feet high and placed the spiral over a famous old statue in the Markt Platz called "Beautiful Fountain" or "Schoener Brunnen." This statue is one of the city's most beloved artworks and the citizens reacted with enormous outrage to Metzel's work.

There was a huge protest when the statue was unveiled and the police had to fence in the entire structure. People have been leaving notes and pictures of protest every day on the fence. Was Metzel making a comment that soccer was going to smother Germany during the World Cup? That everything else was going to be overlooked, ignored and considered unimportant because of the soccer matches, including beautiful old artworks and German culture?

The provocativeness of Metzel's statue means in my eyes that it was a great success. Public art should provoke comment and soul-searching which his work has done. I've included a link to a BBC article about the statue and the controversy; check it out if you want!