In 2013, I moved from Hamburg to Bremen. At that time, the fairy tale of the Bremen Town Musicians came into my mind. Their life-affirming slogan 'Something better than death you'll find everywhere!' is great.
But donkey, dog, cat and rooster never reached Bremen. The agedly A-capella-band annexed a house of robbers in the middle of the woods outside the gates of the city. Since then, they are living rent-free in the wealthy suburbs, are successful musicians at Bremen stages, use Bremen in their band name and pay no taxes in the city-state. Nevertheless, the Hanseatic Bremen likes to adorn itself with the four tax refugees of the squatter scene.
The formerly disputed bronze sculpture of the Bremen Town Musicians, made by Gerhard Marcks in the year 1953, proudly stands beside the Bremen city hall in landmark-rivalry to the Roland of Bremen. Every Asian visitor has touched her excitedly at least once.
Bremen is the smallest federal state of Germany and, already since years, Bremen is highly indebted. On this issue, I wanted to paint something. But how? Empty coffers in front of the city hall would have been trivial. I have a totally disturbed relationship to money, thus no money in the picture! And never regional or day-to-day politics.
In German, there exists the idiom 'to lose feathers', describing the situation of suffering a loss, being damaged, suffering disadvantages. Having this symbol in mind, I was looking for something related to the topic 'indebtedness of Bremen'. By chance, I stumbled upon a drawing of the great British animal painter George Stubbs. A very strange drawing, 40.6 x 56.5 cm in dimension, created in the late baroque. As if Stubbs had drawn it especially for my subject. ❯ Here, the drawing is to be seen.
Suddenly, there he was, the rooster of the Bremen Town Musicians, who lost symbolically his feathers due to the huge debt burden of the town. He hurries, almost floating, on a stony path. His attitude does not give any hint on his internal condition. He did not become fat because of frustration, but remains sporty and athletic. Proud and indebted. A naked Hanseatic citizen without plumage.
I am grateful to my colleague George Stubbs, who created the preliminary drawing to my panel already around 1800. Respect. Without this, my story of indebtedness would never exist. ❯ The genesis of the painting
The Bremen Rooster