2023-06-29 04:00:00
Michael Jones McKean teaches at Virigina Commonwealth University. He is working on a project that spans twelve locations around the world. What role does the ream play.
Why Nordlingen? It’s that one question that comes to mind when you first hear regarding Michael Jones McKean and his project. Because somehow it is not quite so obvious that an artist who teaches at an American university should choose a small town in northern Swabia, in Bavaria, even in Germany, of all places for a global project. But that’s exactly what McKean did. And maybe that’s why there will soon be an extraordinary work of art to be seen and heard in Nördlingen.
This unusual story begins with the artist’s birthplace: McKean was born in 1976 on the Chuuk Atoll, which in turn is part of the Federated States of Micronesia. Roughly speaking they are northeast of Australia. The artist now lives in the USA – he teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University – and in France. McKean’s major project is called “Twelve Earths”, which translates to twelve earths and sounds far more mean in German than in English. He deals with twelve places on our planet that, if you were to connect them, would be on a line that encircles the globe. One of these places is the Atacama Desert in Chile, which is said to be the driest place on earth. Another is in Poland, which McKean says has the oldest forest in Europe. And then there is Nördlingen.
Michael Jones McKean has been to Nördlingen five times
McKean has visited the city and the Ries crater five times since 2019 and has truly absorbed the impressions. He came across Nördlingen because he was studying meteorite craters. They fascinate him because in a way they represent a touch between space and earth. On top of that, the fact that the Ries crater is almost round, that the city has an intact round city wall and is also laid out in a round shape is a plus. In addition, Nördlingen is the only place out of the twelve chosen where people live, which in turn has been documented for centuries, explains McKean.
Last year the artist visited the city archives to immerse himself in the long history of the city. City Archivist Dr. Johannes Moosdiele-Hitzler showed McKean an old map of Nördlingen. The guest was also interested in music that was written in Nördlingen. The former cantors of St. George’s Church left compositions, the sheet music is kept in the city archive. “I showed him the notes. We also walked around the city,” reports Moosdiele-Hitzler.
McKean wants to create a special piano
On a tour of the city, McKean heard music, more specifically music lessons. This listening environment inspired him to create the work of art he is currently working on, regarding and perhaps also for Nördlingen: a piano with a keyboard made of suevite stones. He’s currently working on a model, says McKean, and the suevite isn’t working out that well – the Schwabenstein is too brittle. But he is working on a solution. Just as space and earth touched when the meteorite struck, the player’s finger should touch the suevite keys of the piano when he plays a composition from Nördlingen on it. Because the special instrument should work, as McKean emphasizes: “I want it to work – I want it to work.”
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Of course, the artist has climbed the Daniel church tower, Nördlingen’s landmark, during his visits. Up there, the horizon is a little different than anywhere else in the world, he reports – and sounds a little surprised: You don’t see into the distance, but the edge of the Ries. Perhaps that has kept some Nördlinger in the past from trying their luck elsewhere than in their beloved hometown.
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