In water, underground, on trees… Skulptur Projekte everywhere.

Outrageous! It’s parked on the sidewalk, even obstructs the path to and the view of the museum. Maybe an art transport? Did the truck bring exhibits or pick them up? That would be too simple. The vehicle is one of more than thirty sculpture projects and will remain in the no-parking zone all summer long. The idea for the traffic offense came from Cologne artist Cosima von Bonin and her US colleague Tom Burr.

The artists’ work is not least about the back and forth in the global exhibition business. And as to the other projects in Münster: Few would be suited to the conventional transport in the crate on the truck.

So don’t be surprised if you encounter people in Münster this summer who “perform” sculptures using their entire body—sculptures they created themselves under the guidance of Xavier Le Roy and Scarlet Yu. Or if the pub serves a beer called “Quiet Storm” instead of the local Pils and Kölsch. The sculpture project by Emeka Ogboh is mixed with linden honey and was exposed to the sounds of the Nigerian megacity Lagos during the fermentation process.

For his entry in Skulptur Projekte, Takana drummed up eight Münster residents of various backgrounds in a former nuclear shelter. There, in diverse workshops, he had them interact and discuss how people can live together. Several videos now document the cooperation.

Nicole Eisenmann’s conspicuous work in Park am Buddenturm depicts a slightly derailed group. The cumbersome figures, holding cans of beer, loll around the pool on the grass. Three of the five oversized characters are made of plaster, which shows first signs of disintegrating even in June. Two were cast in bronze but seem to downright rebel against the grandeur one normally ascribes classic monuments made in this fashion. It is provoking how Eisenmann reacts to the site—perhaps even caricaturizes the everyday park situation—with her bizarre production.

When Odzuck heard about the plan to demolish the building, the artist got really interested. He had studied as a master student under Rita McBride at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Again and again the thirty-eight-year-old uses his art to explore changes, directs the viewer’s eye to the processes occurring in the city. Odzuck’s artistic interests can be found somewhere in the public space—between sculpture and architecture, between the present and the past.

When Skulptur Projekte ends on 1 October the hullabaloo at the harbor will be over. The artwork will disappear. That’s how Erkmen works: Her pieces are almost always made for the one venue and rarely conceived to endure. They cannot be transplanted or preserved. You cannot carry them home and they will hardly find a permanent place in a museum. Instead they emerge here and there and then disappear never to be seen again.

The concrete floor has been ripped open, snails stagnate in puddles, bee colonies inhabit two clay cones, a pair of peacocks perches on the bleachers. Every once in a while the roof opens up. And where light enters, a delicate green spreads out on the mounds of dirt. Trodden paths lead up and down through that technical and biological microcosm that is repeatedly flooded by an undefinable buzzing. There’s a complex system behind all of this: Thus movements in the hall, for instance, are led to an incubator with human cancer cells, which react and divide in different ways. Thus created data is sent to an aquarium with diverse forms of life….

What else is happening in Hot Wire, which links the two partner towns during the summer? Marl’s program includes two exhibitions. And each weekend a performance for horse lovers. Reiner Ruthenbeck premiered the performance within the framework of Skulptur Projekte 1997 on Promenadenring in Münster. In the new Marl edition the white horse and the black ride in opposite directions around City-See and the Town Hall.

In October the sculpture hubbub will be over: Angst will return to Marl, the Benz of Bonin and Burr will leave the no-parking zone, and Erkmen’s water bridge will be closed down. If you want something permanent to take home with you from Münster, though, you will find it in Tätowierstudio (tattoo studio), which Michael Smith installed at Hansaring. The works by the US artist (b. 1951) continue to revolve around age, the cult of youth, trends, and role models. Fitting within this context is his project in Münster, directed first of all at the generation 65+—including consultation and discounts for seniors. The pool of pictures has true souvenir qualities: The motifs were designed specially by the artists of Skulptur Projekte.