Matti Braun Untitled, 2008

This glass vitrine is made from copper and wood. The inside surface is lined with green felt, like a card table. Three carp skeletons are arranged on the inside surface parallel to each other. The case was part of the artist's 2008 solo exhibition at the Museum Ludwig entitled Özurfa which traced the cultural entanglements between the names of Turkish diners in Cologne and the eponymous city Urfa in Turkey. The carp skeletons refer to a legend according to which Abraham was saved from burning at the stake in Urfa when God transformed its fire into a lake, and its burning fragments into carps.