Nuremberg-born sculptor Peter Lenk is one of the most successful and controversial representatives of large-scale figurative sculpture in Baden-Württemberg. In 1997, he created the sculpture "Paradise Tree" for the intersection of Scheffelstrasse and Hegaustrasse. The free-standing sculpture presents hyper-realistically modelled and at the same time caricature-like alienated life-size figures theatrically and visible from afar on four levels arranged one above the other and extending like branches in different directions.
Based on the motto: "The mundane eats away at the homely", the work illustrates the conflict between supposed cosmopolitanism and obvious provincialism, between the lure of faraway places and the narrowness of home. Lenk sees his satirical work as a grotesque parody of the different ideas and desires of the petit bourgeois: "Today, paradise is something different for everyone. Eva wants to wear the most elegant shoes in Singen. The caretaker wants to dive for black princesses in the Maldives and the receptionist wants to be elected flower queen on Boracay. It would be heavenly for the old people not to have to mistrust paradises, for Cupid to hit Bigotte with his love arrows and for the Singen bear to finally be able to make the Hegau happy again as a whole man after the ban imposed by the Baden government in 1899, in order to produce a unique litter of poppels. The work cures frigidity and impotence." (Lenk)
At the same time, Lenk's work can be read as an ironic and satirical visual commentary on local and regional socio-political conditions. With a bitingly humorous undertone, the abstruse and enigmatic aspects of people and events from politics, culture and society in the city and region are uncovered and put up for discussion in the public space.
Text and editing: Art Museum Singen
