In 2000, Ulrich Rückriem created a sculpture specially for the large exhibition hall at Neues Museum. In line with a fixed principle, 11 cubes of Norman granite are spread across the hall's floor of stone slabs, reflecting their configuration and size. Only one of the cubes may stand on each row of slabs (either lengthwise and crossways) so that there are several possible ways to exhibit the work.
Following exhibitions in 2000 and 2005, this summer a third version will be on show, arranged by the artist himself specially to mark Neues Museum's jubilee year. Rückriem's installation is part of a group of works for indoor and outdoor settings in which he distri butes his stone sculptures in line with a clear rule across a specific grid. He first jotted down ideas in this regard back in 1984. The first set of sculptures he then made, visible from afar, consisted of 20 steles erected in 1995 on the Spanish side of the Pyrennees. It was followed in 1998 by an indoor piece destined for the great hall of the Neuer Nationalgalerie in Berlin, designed by Mies van der Rohe. While conditions there only permitted a work made of granite slabs, Neues Museums architecture enabled Rückriem to opt for closed stone cubes.
For the duration of the exhibition, Melitta Kliege's publication on the collection will be available for 5,– Euro; it describes how the piece in Nuremberg fits in with Rückriem's extensive group of sculptures and explains how he works.