The heart, whose outline is impressively conveyed by a cool, architectural grid structure made of PVC and steel tubes, was also to be enhanced by light and sound. The filigree construction, which had already been presented as “Heart Number One” in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in June 2016, had to be rebuilt.
The space was quickly found. There was enough space on the first floor of Werk12, which is always used for art events anyway, under the fitness area of “body + soul”. The sculpture had already been ordered. Andrea-Elisabeth Lutz from the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, responsible for cultural projects at the Archdiocesan Ordinariate, had booked “Heart” for the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Neuhausen as part of the “Long Night of Music 2023”.
As Pendry got to know the Werksviertel site better, he immediately noticed the Werk13. The spacious building in the extension of the Technikum, towards the south-east, defined an open space with the almost completed Plant 1.4, which already hinted at the quality of a lively public space even before the construction work was completed.
With its studio space on the second floor, Werk13, connected on several levels by space-saving spiral staircases and accessible from anywhere by a mobile, permanently installed crane, seemed ideal to Pendry as a place for workshops and meetings. He applied immediately. He has been based there since February 2024 and has already integrated his production into an attractive living space.
While talking to him, we stood on the wide veranda of the second floor on one of the first beautiful days and clearly felt the atmosphere of this newly developed area.
How did this internationally coveted installation come about, starting with “Heart Number One” in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche eight years ago? Originally, Andrea-Elisabeth Lutz wanted the doves, “Les colombes” (“The white doves”) for the “Long Night of Music”. Between 2016 and 2020, Pendry and his team had already taken this highly successful installation to Jerusalem (Benedictine Dormition Abbey, Mount Zion), London (St. Martins-in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square), Salisbury (Salisbury Cathedral), San Francisco (Grace Cathedral), New York City (Church of the heavenly rest) and Washington DC (National Cathedral). In Munich, the 2,000 doves folded by people from all over the world and from all religions were also on display in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in 2017.
But when Andrea-Elisabeth Lutz and Richard Kick from the advisory board for those affected saw a gold-plated steel model erected on a piece of rock in Pendry’s studio, there was no doubt that the great work would have to be presented in the church. On May 6, 2023, members of the Archdiocese of Munich’s Affected People’s Advisory Council set off on a cycling pilgrimage to the Vatican to present the model to Pope Francis in a public ceremony ten days later. Bayerischer Rundfunk accompanied the pilgrimage in a half-hour documentary in its “Stations” series.
For all the honor Pendry received here, he did not fail to point out that he does not want to be appropriated by the church or denomination, and certainly not ideologically. The universalism of his art, it must be said, is aimed at the humanization of mankind. In this fundamental way, he builds bridges from ancient mythologies to modernity, asks about the return of ancient myths in modernity, analyzes in figurations, studied the world-spanning pictorial interpretations of C.G. Jung, their time-transcending psychological consistency.
Wherever he sets up, he spontaneously asks the most diverse people in bars and restaurants to fold pigeons with him. Sometimes notes are written on paper that is not perfectly folded according to origami. Sad, hopeful, bizarre. These over two thousand individual, winged messages are carefully folded flat each time after dismantling and placed in a flight case. There it stands in his studio at Werk13.
The cosmopolitan is also a universalist in every respect when it comes to his artistic career. Shuttling between Munich and London, he preferred to finish his engineering degree first after completing an acting graduate course with Prof. Olaf Metzel, who also worked with his class at the Kultfabrik. A stalwart.
For viewers who experience his installations in various locations, the encounter with his pulsating artifacts, which call for movement, creates something like the self-awareness of one’s own heart, one’s own organism as a world-embracing one. This is art that does not need to be explained.
With Michael Pendry, the new Werk13 has gained an important artist. Because that is what this place calls for in its cooperative mixture of art and workshop. A lot more will be created here.
Much of Michael Pendry’s extensive work, which has not been covered here, can be seen here
Text: Michael Wüst
