25T35 Vostell’s concrete sculptural commentary

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E34, B29.

At a traffic circle in Berlin stands a concrete sculpture whose meaning is a criticism of excessive consumer culture and the glorification of cars. In 1987, this might not have been out of place in staunchly anti-capitalist East Berlin. Instead, German artist Wolf Vostell (1932-1998) approved the sculpture’s installation in West Berlin at Rathenauplatz, near the border between “Ortsteil” Halensee and Grunewald. The occasion was Berlin’s 750th founding anniversary as a city, as part of an extended street with sculptures for the grand anniversary.

Vostell took two full-sized Cadillacs and encased them in concrete. The title is “Two Concrete Cadillacs in the Form of the Naked Maja”, an allusion to Goya’s painting “The Naked Maja”. Vostell explained the placement of the sculpture in the traffic circle as “a dance of car drivers around the golden calf.” At the time, the artwork proved to some controversial at best and objectionable at worst, but the sculpture has stuck around to 2025, while the objections slowly aged out and died. Some folks who loved their cars apparently didn’t like to be criticized or excoriated.

Welp, I’m now a fan, and I’ll look for his 1970 cement sculpture in Cologne when I’m back there in a few weeks.

Facing northwest. The sprayed-on sentiment is recent, but absolutely agreeable.
Facing southwest.
Facing northeast.
Facing southeast. The sentiment is repeated on the other side, which makes it doubly agreeable.

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 7 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

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