Lawrence Weiner – Wir sind keine Enten auf dem Teich

Lawrence Weiner's Wir sind keine Enten auf dem Teich, wir sind Schiffe auf dem Meer (1990) is a limited edition screenprint that documents one of his most emblematic public art statements. The phrase originates from a floating oak sculpture anchored on the river Elbe in Hamburg in the late 1980s, where the text was realized in copper lettering as part of Hamburg's 1989 city-wide public art project, which also included artists such as Jenny Holzer and Dan Graham.

First spoken by Weiner during a visit to Hamburg in the 1970s, the sentence resists fixed meaning, oscillating between reflections on artistic autonomy, collective movement, and the city's identity as a global port. Translated into a screenprint on card, the work preserves Weiner's core conceptual principle: language itself functions as sculpture, existing independently of form while remaining materially present.

Published in 1990 in a limited edition of 30 screenprints, Wir sind keine Enten auf dem Teich, wir sind Schiffe auf dem Meer is hand-signed and numbered by the artist, situating this historically significant text within Weiner's broader practice of text-based artworks and limited edition prints, where meaning is completed through the viewer's interpretation.

Lawrence Weiner (1942–2021) was a pioneering figure of conceptual art whose work fundamentally reshaped how language functions within contemporary art. Born in the Bronx, New York, Weiner is best known for his text-based artworks, in which words themselves become the primary material. Central to his practice was the idea that an artwork does not require physical execution to exist; the concept alone is sufficient, and the realization of the work can occur in the mind of the viewer.

From the late 1960s onward, Weiner articulated this position through statements presented on walls, in books, public spaces, and as limited edition prints. His works often take the form of propositions or instructions, emphasizing that art can be enacted, imagined, or simply read. This approach challenged traditional notions of authorship, ownership, and permanence, positioning the viewer as an active participant in completing the work.

Alongside these immaterial propositions, Weiner also produced limited edition prints and objects that translate his linguistic concepts into tangible form. These editions typically feature his distinctive, minimalist typography and industrial materials, allowing language-based art to exist as collectible artworks while remaining conceptually open.

Weiner's influence extends across conceptual art, text-based art, and contemporary sculpture, where language is treated as a spatial and intellectual structure. His work continues to inform how artists engage with meaning, material, and audience, underscoring the enduring power of words as both medium and artwork. He was the subject of major solo exhibitions at institutions including the Holstebro Kunstmuseum, Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Stedelijk Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Walker Art Center.