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>>The Garden of the Black Stain
Works 2005
The Munich Königsplatz Project (since 1998)
Images:
Overlays (conceptuals)
Process (memory seismograph on the square)
The garden of the black stain (spatial interventions)
The
library of the burned books (architectural
proposal)
Publications
Suppression of humanity
Initially designesd by Leo von Klenze in 1812 the Königsplatz was
appropriated by the Nazis In 1935 and turned into the "Acropolis
Germaniae”, a Kultstatte [landmark] to celebrate their ideology
and rituals. Books by many important writers, philosophers and intellectuals
were burned in square.
Every time I walk across the square I can visualise Kandinsky’s
drawing "Der Schwarze Fleck” [The Black Stain]. Or I can hear
the words from Thomas Mann’s "Munchen leuchet” [Munich
Glow]. I think about Walter Benjamin’s "Passagenwerk”
and his "angel of history”, who always turned his back to the
future and only saw the ruins of the past. Franz Kafka’s sentence:
"A book must be what an axe is for a frozen lake.” Once set
off, it is a cascade of life stories, ideas, visions, which in my imagination
float over the square but are destined to be invisible.
In March 1933, near enough on the same day, the building of the first
concentration camp in Dachau coincided with the transformation of the
Königsplatz by the Nazis.
Suppression of the past
The Königsplatz is a contradictory place. The Königsplatz exists
without time. The past only seems interesting if it’s not hurtful.
Its history, during the Nazi regime, is ignored. After WW2 up to 1988,
the square was used as a car park. Now it is a green space.
The square where books were burned has been replanted, the traces of history
have literally been brushed over.
There is a curse on the square which seems to slow down time and prevent
new things from happening. The square and its immediate surroundings is
a taboo in the city, something which should not be touched or mentioned.
But why?
Room for the future
How can we learn from the "trauma” and use the experience in
the future? What concept would be suitable for successive generation,
linking the past, present and future?
According to Einstein, the past, present and future are only illusions.
Similarly in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time we experience
the city as a complex overlay of real and imaginary spaces and the concomitance
of events happening in them. Because of its contradictory place in the
consciousness of the city, the Königsplatz could in future offer
new possibilities if it can be integrated.
The garden of the black stain
It seems important to create a kind of imaginary architecture which generates
new dreams/wishes and possibilities. Every realisation of one possibility
starts a new process.
The Königsplatz will be covered with the enlarged line drawing by
Wassily Kandinsky. "Der Schwarze Fleck” [The Black Stain] is
a linear composition of elements from Munich and its surroundings and
was made in 1913 as a study for a larger painting.
The structure will be displayed on the lawn using white paint (like the
kind used on football pitches). After two weeks the paint will vanish
if it is not renewed.
From the ground the spectator will be unable to identify or make sense
of the line structure. The full picture can only be seen from above. The
lines divide the square in planes, creating an imaginary map. The visitor
will only be on one particular space at a time.
But why this picture?
When I was eighteen I read Kandinsky’s book Punkt, Linie, Flache
[Dot, Lines, Planes]. I had no idea that I would one day live in Munich,
the city which was so important to Kandinsky.
The title of the drawing coincidentally refers to the burning of the books
which would happen years later. It triggers off many associations with
the Königsplatz. The indefiniteness of the drawing seems like a fine
filament in an icy room. What could this drawing trigger off, if drawn
as a construction drawing of an imaginary architecture onto the square?
Would we be pleased if the lines would slowly disappear after two weeks?
The library of the burned books
South west of the Glyptothek, there is a cave-like room. The garden of
the dark stain forms the horizontal façade of the library of the
burned books. A long ramp leads to an oval room. From above, through glass
windows one can only see a little of the 8m deep space underground, which
contain the books which were burned decades earlier.
The library can be accessed via a ramp which leads down to a podium. From
there one can view the interior of the library, which is located a further
level down. A lift and a long ramp allow access to the lower level.
The room will be filled with light through circular windows in the ceiling.
The square will be lit in the evenings with light coming through the windows.
The light creates an impression of the library which lies underneath.
The books are oriented according to where they were written, where the
writers lived etc.
It is not as important to search for something in particular as it is
to find something new. When the Präsenz Bücherei [Presence Library]
is used, the books can start to breathe again, allowing new life to develop.
During the search for lost time one can also find the lost place…
No parts of this project could be realised up to now, due to the resitance
of Munichs Department of Building regulations. Not even a drawing with
chalk lines was allowed altough it was strongly supported by the Cultural
Department (...). For more information contact our studio.