Art Work produced at "Musisches Zentrum der RUB"
(up to 2020, when the covid19 pandemic arrived)
Since 1996,
I have taken up sculpture and dappled with wood, Ytong (TM) (an artificial
lightweight stone for building), "Tuff" stone and lime stone,
using the arts workshop at Musisches Zentrum der Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Section/Bereich "Bildende Kunst".
Some of the results star outside our house
(it is easier to dress a house with gargoyles than to maintain it ...).
Take a tour by clicking on the tags!
The (fairly complete) chronological record below is partly illustrated.
More pictures may be found via the topical selections farther down.
Vintage samples by year
Stony-faced characters (The Ytong collection)
Wooden heads and things
Wooden heads and things produced in the first five years (1997 to 2001)
Wooden heads and things produced in the years 2002 to 2006
Wooden heads and things produced in the years 2007 to 2011
Wooden heads and things produced in the years 2012 to 2016
Wooden heads and things produced in the years 2017 to 2021
Wooden heads and things produced in the years 2022 to 2026
Participation in the (usually) annual
"Überblick"
survey show of the arts workshop of MZ, from December 2001
to February 2002.
Salzlöffelmaske / Salt spoon mask
Special event (for me): from mid January to early May 2003,
much of my wood work (some 32 pieces), two Ytong figures,
and two tuff stone sculptures went on display in the foyer
showcases and the arts workshop of Musisches Zentrum.
Pictures from the (informal) 2003 exhibition
Heinrich H. Koch (Bereichsleiter Bildende Kunst im Musischen Zentrum der
Ruhr-Universität Bochum / Section Head of the Arts Workshop) claims:
Grosse Bogenkopffigur (Eiche) / Tall archy-headed figure (oak)
Hoher Eierkopf auf Schwung / Twister
Participation in the (usually) annual
"Überblick"
survey show of the arts workshop of MZ, from mid December 2003
to February 2004.
Participation in the MZ exhibition "Rückblick" (Dec 2004 - Feb 2005)
Participation in the MZ exhibition "Rückblick" (Dec 2005 - Apr 2006)
On the cover of the
British Shakespeare Association's journal
"Shakespeare", Vol. 1 (2005) appears a photo of Elmar's wooden
sculpture of this name.
Participation in the MZ exhibition "Rückblick" (Dec 2006 - Apr 2007)
Participation in the joint group exhibition "As You Like It" at MZ, Jan - May 2009
Exhibition (together with Reza Ghafariha) "Formen schreiben - Formen finden"
On the web, the arts page
"Es ist Kunst" (set up by Romaine Desbordes) shows samples of my work.
Exhibition of some 20 sculptures and graphics as well as themed photo selections
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA (Marcg 2011 ff)
A selection of my sculptures
is being shown in a group exhibition (Jul 2012 - Jan 2013) at the
occasion of H. H. Koch's end of term as MZ arts section head.
From the winter semester 2013/14 for a year, the Bochum university library (UB RUB)
shows a sizeable selection (at times some 77 pieces) of my sculptures
under the title "Köpfe zwischen Büchern / Heads among books".
Impressions from the exhibition at the university library
There also is an official library page
on the exhibition.
Satellite exhibition at the "Blue Square" building of the university in downtown Bochum
from mid December 2013 to late February 2014.
From December 2014 to March 2015, the Verbundbibliothek GA, the joint library of four
fields in two faculties in the
humanities at the university (RUB), hosts an exhibition "BücherKöpfeSkulpturenVerbund"
that has been derived from the earlier exhibition in the central library, but is augmented
to a half by new pieces.The initially 72 pieces are distributed over all five levels of the library.
Einladung / Invitation
From late January to April 2015, the Arts section of the Musisches Zentrum stages an exhibition
on "Humans and Landscape", with mostly graphics, and with my little "Thoughtful" figure.
Participation in the MZ exhibition "Überblick" (Dec 2016 - Mar 2017)
In Spring of 2017, the dead elm just East of the Unicenter building zone is being reshaped into the HuMu figure.
For context and pictures, see The elm tree story or Diversity from a single tree.
Participation in the MZ exhibition "Überblick" (Feb 2018 - Mar 2018)
Participation in the MZ exhibition "Überblick" (Dec 2018 - Mar 2019), with "Concierge"
Running from late January to the end of March 2019: Participation in the fine arts section exhibition "Pictures tell stories" at the university library,
with a set "Trilateral relations".
From September 2019, pieces with astronomical connotations are displayed in the corridor space of the relocated Astronomy chair in GAFO 03.
Participation in the MZ exhibition "Überblick" (6 Dec 2019 - Jan 2020), with "Concierge_2".
Participation in the fine arts section exhibition "Diary" at the university library (22 Jan to 15 Mar 2020),
with a three-piece wooden set "Table talk".
Are you possibly interested in acquiring a piece? Just ask and let us talk about that!
Unless noted otherwise, the ©opyright to all pictures shown here
resides with E. Träbert
Personal references
Träbert Family Arts Page
This has become a rather long list, and it may be advisable to download / look up the same sorted by semi-decade:
Heavy stones (hard and heavy)
Ausstellungen / Exhibitions
(Foto: H. Träbert 2003)
"Hand" and "Dragon"
"Er spielt mit den Anregungen der klassischen Moderne."
(gemeint sind die afrikanischen und ozeanischen Artefakte, die zu Beginn
des 20. Jhdts. von europäischen Künstlern endlich auch als
Kunstwerke wahrgenommen wurden)
("He toys with motifs that have instigated classical modern art.")
(Photo: H. Träbert 2003) 
(Photo by H. Träbert)
This event is being celebrated by a few more Shakespearean actors
on stage:
("Writing shapes - finding shapes")
in the year in which Bochum is part of the European Cultural Capital:
15 April - 23 July 2010 at Musisches Zentrum (slightly modified, the exhibition ran on through November)
To the official page via
"Ausstellung im SS 2010" on the "MZ Bildende Kunst" home page
Or have a look via my own pages.
(Foto: H. Träbert)
Eventually the Ytong gargoyles become a semi-permanent decoration of the library,
while many of the other works remain as a 'living' display with occasional changes.
By mid 2017, there are more than 140 pieces on display.
By December of 2017, after 3 years, the exhibition part in the arts history library section ends. 111 figures remain in the other sections.
Fire regulations by now forbid the display of combustible materials (such as wood ...
which bans most of the output of the sculpting workshop from the show)
in the usual exhibition space in the MZ lobby. Under this rule, one wooden figure is
set up being wrapped in aluminium foil (secured by wire) as a fire protective measure.
(Note on fire regulations: escape routes have to be 1.2 m wide or wider. Most of the
lobby spaces are MUCH wider than this. Nevertheless even barely combustible materials
have been banned, and all display boards and picture frames exchanged for metal-only
versions. (In Oct/Nov 2019, the university chancellor Dr. Reinhardt explicitly mandated to put up an exhibition
by the German architecture museum (on concrete brutalism architecture) in the MZ lobby and up the ramps and lobbies of the theatre
section. The information boards and architecture models of this exhibition were all made of
corrugated paper. So much for fire regulations, which maybe apply only to lesser mortals.))
E.T. (Photo by H. Träbert 2003)
Elmar Träbert home page
Updated: 22 Nov 2023