Luther live
The artist Yadegar Asisi has created an enormous panorama in Wittenberg that shows the town at the time of Martin Luther.
In Wittenberg it is really not that difficult to imagine yourself transported back into the past: you can follow in Martin Luther’s footsteps to numerous buildings in the old town centre – and occasionally a guide dressed as Luther’s wife Katharina von Bora flits across the market square. An enormous work of art in Wittenberg now ensures that people can gain an even better picture of the town and society 500 years ago.
A separate building for the work of art
Yadegar Asisi, an Austrian artist with Persian roots, has created a 360-degree panorama to do just that. A circular structure has been erected especially for this work of art. It is intended to be open to visitors for at least five years. Around the walls you can see imagined scenes of Wittenberg at the beginning of the 16th century. Merchants, peasants and monks can be seen, as well as thinkers associated with Luther. The Reformer himself also appears – he is waving a print of his 95 Theses in his hand and vehemently appealing for onlookers’ support.
With his work, Asisi, who qualified as an architect before studying painting at the Berlin University of the Arts, is continuing the tradition of large circular panoramas that disappeared following the rise of the cinema. He has already implemented the concept in several towns. For Berlin he created a panorama entitled “The Wall”. “Dresden 45” showed the city after its destruction in the Second World War. Works by Asisi have also been displayed in Rome and Rouen.
