[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NT_8687.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tAn artist has demanded the organizers of Manifesta 16 remove an installation from the exhibition in Essen, Germany, alleging that a piece in the show plagiarizes one of her earlier works.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe piece, titled Elevation<\/em> and made by the Turkish sculptor Nasan Tur, consists of reclaimed church pews installed on their side inside St. Gertud Church and engraved with anonymous musings submitted by the public. Bochum-based artist Dorothee Bielfeld told the German outlet Waz<\/em> that the Elevation<\/em>\u2019scentral visual motif\u2014meter-high upright pews, transformed by their reorientation into oblique towers\u2014closely resembles her 2010 work Aufrichten (Raising Up), <\/em>created for Ruhr.2010, a cultural campaign in Germany\u2019s Ruhr region.<\/p>\n Elevation<\/em> invites visitors to carve wishes, worries, and hopes into the church pews. Bielfeld\u2019s Aufrichten<\/em> also employs a participatory conceit: Visitors to Christ-K\u00f6nig-Kirche could deposit slips of paper bearing their thoughts into pipes embedded in the wall.<\/p>\n \n\tThe earlier work was installed in Hamburg\u2019s Christ-K\u00f6nig-Kirche and featured 29 wooden pews positioned upright; the effect, she said, was of being lost in a forest. Bielfeld told WAZ<\/em> that she was \u201cabsolutely devastated\u201d upon seeing images of Tur\u2019s work at St. Gertrud\u2019s Church. \u201cI delved deeply into the subject of decommissioned churches,\u201d she said of its creation. \u201cSince then, I\u2019ve focused on the repurposing of churches as well as the changing nature of worship services. So this is truly my area of expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe added that less than an hour after learning of Elevation, she contacted Manifesta 16 to request its removal from the exhibition. A spokesperson for Manifesta 16 said in a statement to the press that, while the installations bear \u201csuperficial\u201d visual similarities, the biennial stands by a curatorial assessment by Leonie Herweg and Ren\u00e9 Block, who, \u201cwithout prejudice,\u201d deemed Tur\u2019s work artistically independent. The curators also noted that Tur\u2019s work was part of an ongoing, participatory project.<\/p>\n \n\tTur denied Bielfeld\u2019s accusations, describing them in an emailed statement to ARTnews<\/em> as \u201cfalse and baseless,\u201d and adding that the media coverage of the controversy has affected him \u201cdeeply.\u201d He continued: \u201cAs Ms. Bielfeld did not respond to a proposal for a face-to-face meeting between Manifesta and the curators\u2014and I would have been happy to attend as well\u2014but instead sent me a threatening letter via her lawyer, I have now had to engage a lawyer myself to protect myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tManifesta opened in Germany\u2019s Ruhr region on June 21 and runs through October 4. The latest edition of the nomadic European biennial unfolds this year across four cities\u2014Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, and Bochum\u2014with 12 historic churches hosting site-specific installations. The curatorial framework focuses on reactivating these mostly disused spaces as opportunities for civic and cultural encounters.<\/p>\n ARTnews<\/em> has contacted the organizers of Manifesta 16 for further comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/manifesta-plagiarism-allegation-nasan-tur-dorothee-bielfeld-1234791108\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NT_8687.jpg?w=1024″] An artist has demanded the organizers of Manifesta 16 remove an installation from the exhibition in Essen, Germany, alleging that a piece in the show plagiarizes one of her earlier works.\u00a0 The piece, titled Elevation and made by the Turkish sculptor Nasan Tur, consists of reclaimed church pews installed on their side […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2024587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2024587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2024587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2024587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2024587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}