02 2003
kunstprojekte_riem
The experiment is to be continued only until the end
of 2003
kunstprojekte_riem has realised over twenty art
projects in the space of three years and has attracted
favourable attention in Germany and abroad. It will
cease activity at the end of 2003 because the Munich
city authorities have decided to re-allocate funds.
Munich City Council has accepted the suggestion
of its officer for cultural affairs, Lydia Hartl,
and is extending the experiment of creating art
for the new suburb of Messestadt by only one year
(which is to be used for documentation). The EUR
1.8 million remaining from the money set aside for
kunstprojekte_riem - almost half the original budget
- will be used to fund art produced in connection
with the federal gardening exhibition, the BUGA,
which is being held in Munich in 2005. Hartl's predecessor,
Julian Nida-Rümelin, who had vehemently opposed
the BUGA organiser's request for sums of this order
at a council meeting on 25 November 2000, granted
the organisation only DM 0.5 million.
In 1998 experts awarded art historian Claudia Büttner
first prize in a competition for plans to create
art for Messestadt. They recommended the City Council
to implement her seven-year plan. As head of kunstprojekte_riem,
Büttner has spent three years in Messestadt
instituting projects and events for a suburb with
a present population of 2,500. Over twenty works
by twenty-nine acclaimed artists from Germany and
abroad have involved interactive projects with local
residents, temporary installations, media art, photography
and permanent sculptures. kunstprojekte_riem has
also devised three projects enabling a total of
forty-eight students to create work for Messestadt.
The two women who run kunstprojekte_riem are preparing
a documentary publication on its work and are organising
an international conference on art in urban development
areas. Projects in progress, including Karin Sander
and Lützow 7's designs for a public space and
Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg's work in cooperation
with the staff and pupils of the Schulzentrum München
Ost, will be completed. Planning has also begun
for works to be carried out in the coming year.
Claudia Büttner, curator of kunstprojekte_riem,
will be happy to provide further information or
give interviews.