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Dennis Oppenheim creates Battle Drums on the site of the Varus Battle of 9 AD

Date uploaded: June 11, 2009

Dennis Oppenheim’s Battle Drums, 2009 is in front of the main train station in Osnabruck, Germany as part of the group show Colossal curated by Jan Hoet. The goal of the show is to create new reflection spaces on the Varus Battle, which took place in the region in 9 A.D. and is was the starting point of the military retreat of the Roman Empire from the north of Germany. Supported by Landschaftsverband Osnabrücker Land e.V., the exhibition is twenty projects sited in the archaeological Park of Kalkriese and in farmyards in the Vargus region as well as the City of Osnabruck.

According to the artist, the starting point for Battle Drums was the massive attack employing thousands of spears hurdled into the air which rained on trapped and confused approaching Romans soldiers. Like a torrential rain storm, long steel spears fell upon the approaching soldiers.

Battle Drums focuses on this action and subjects it to motorized revolutions of a turntable producing an endless pattern of cascading spears over and over again, on the Romans figures. It is this swirl of death, here shown in revolving light, which underlines the universal outcome of all wars.

The project was engineered and constructed by Hartmut Rählmann of Hasbergen.Water jet cut corten steel, rotating motor, timer, lights.

Each drum: 2.7m H X 2.7m in dia

Installation: 2.7m H X 7 m in dia

Visit the Dennis Oppenheim’s

Click here for more information on the exhibition

Dennis Oppenheim’s media contact: Amy Plumb

1 212 962 0178

[email protected]

Visit Dennis Oppenheim’s website

Battle Drums, Dennis Oppenheim, 2009. Colossal Group Show, Osnabruck, Germany.

Battle Drums, Dennis Oppenheim, 2009. Colossal Group Show, Osnabruck, Germany.