10 BODIES

Three-dimensional portraits such as busts and death masks generate a spatial presence of the university scholars. Made from robust materials to endure time, these memorial objects strive to mark individual scientists as significant and to preserve their memory beyond their death.

CREATING TRADITION
The representative showpieces reveal the multifaceted series of images of the University. By adopting classical portrait traditions of the emperor's bust, they create Caesars of the modern sciences and call upon their ancient authority. Sculptures find their way into the holy halls of science, such as the library and the small auditorium of the University of Göttingen.

SELECTION AND CANON
To this day, the portraits in the halls, corridors, storerooms and hidden corners of the Georgia Augusta remain in evidence. It is not only their mere presence that forces viewers to constantly confront traditions. They also formulate a canon of who is to be remembered and who is not. The portraits are based on a criteria that expresses the predominant ideals of academia and embodies them – in the truest sense of the word.