Tupacproject

Tupacproject consists of the construction of a monument dedicated to Tupac Amaru Shakur, the Black Panther rapper who died in 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas Valley.

Since the opening exhibition at the Marta Herford Museum in 2005, it has stood imperturbably in front of the Gehry architecture: the life-size sculpture by Tupac Shakur.

Raised on a nearly 5 m high pedestal and with arms folded behind, shirtless and eyes lowered, the life-size monument by the Italian artist Paolo Chiasera (*1978, Bologna) is one of the first works of art that the visitors* even before entering look into Marta. And meanwhile it has become an integral part of the "museum skyline".

For many, however, the presence of the gangsta rapper in Herford remains a mystery, as does the German rapper Marteria, who visited the Tupac statue together with rap colleague Casper last summer. Marteria lost a €50 bet because he doubted the existence of a Tupac statue in Herford.

With contributions from Lorenzo Benedetti, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pier Luigi Tazzi.