Candida Höfer - Zwölf - Twelve - The Burghers of Calais

 CANDIDA HÖFER (1944-)

In 1347, during the seige of Calais, King Edward III agreed to spare the population of the town on the condition that six of the most important citizens leave Calais bareheaded and barefoot, with a rope around their necks, carrying the keys to the town and the castle. In 1884, the City of Calais commissioned August Rodin to create what is arguably his most famous bronze statue, The Burghers of Calais, a radically new type of monument devoid of all heroic transfiguration. In 1997, the twelfth and last cast of The Burghers was unveiled in Seoul, and the City of Calais thus decided to commission a new work on the subject by Candida Höfer. In her trademark austere, unpretentious, and sensitively detailed photographs, the artist captured the twelve casts of the sculpture at their locations across the world: in museums and squares in Paris, Tokyo, Brussels, London, Copenhagen, Washington, Philadelphia, Basel, Mariemont/Belgium, Pasadena, Seoul, and Calais.