Everyone is familiar with pigeon spikes, a bird repellent device that can be found on a number of listed buildings. The installation by the Viennese artist collective Steinbrener / Dempf & Huber provides the upper plateau of the Siegestor with this device. However, the spikes of the usual 10 centimeters here measure 3.5 metres.
At least since Pablo Picasso’s design for the World Peace Congress in 1949, the dove has become the ultimate symbol of peace. With the oversized dove spikes, the associated dove becomes a gigantic creature for the viewer.
The ambiguous memorial – originally a war memorial, then admonishing peace – is intended to be updated here in the face of war.
Steinbrener / Dempf & Huber deliberately leave it open whether the imaginary defense of an oversized pigeon is intended to address the peace movement or general rearmament in Europe.
Insight into the structure of the work, see on the YouTube Channel of Public Art München
