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Dingfest


A joint project by students of art and architecture, summer 2002

Dingfest is the latest in the series of annual projects devised by students at the invitation of kunstprojekte_riem. In 2000 sixteen students at Munich's Staatliche Fachakademie für Fotodesign took part in a photographic project, while in 2001 twenty-three students from the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Kunst und Konservierung in Berne and the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich collaborated on Outlet. This year Messestadt once again forms the focus of work produced by students. In collaboration with Andreas Meck, who teaches architecture at the Fachhochschule in Munich, kunstprojekte_riem has initiated a joint project by architecture students at the Fachhochschule and students of art at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, also in Munich. At their first meeting the nine participating students were full of expectations and showed immediate interest in each other's work. They formed four teams, each including an architecture and an art student: Johannes Doerle, Margarete Drum and Florian Ernst; Claudia Heinzler and Katja Zachmann; Katharina Teuchert and Steffen Werner; Genua and Peter Sarger.
The students were to devise projects that approached the public spaces of Messestadt from as many angles as possible, and their search for these perspectives guided their manner of working together. In a series of discussions they examined both the differences and the points of contact between the architect's and the artist's view of public places. In developing their projects the groups have addressed the current situation in Messestadt in a wide variety of ways, yet all the proposals aim to create concrete objects or structures. The approaches range from large-scale planning in Parklinie ('Park Line'), which is based on an analysis of the suburb's road network, to the social orientation of Aufwärmphase ('Warming-up Phase'), which focuses on the concerns of a particular group of Messestadt residents. In addition to work intended to be carried out in Messestadt, one piece has been devised for the Marienhof in the centre of Munich. Here, a large sculpture in the form of an ear can be entered by visitors wishing to establish aural contact with the new suburb at Riem.
The realisation of these projects in Messestadt will be but one result of this joint undertaking. Perhaps more important is that the collaboration between budding architects and artists, with all the head-shaking and mutual criticism it involved, has already led both parties to consider more closely the nature of the discipline they work in.


Projects:

Genua and Peter Sarger's 'Blaupause' (Blueprint) is a sculpture in sound and wood that takes the form of an oversize ear. Inside, visitors can listen to residents of the old Munich suburb of Riem and of the new town in the area, Messestadt, talking in various languages about the airport that used to occupy the Messestadt site and about life in the new residential district. The sculpture is installed in the Marienhof in the centre of Munich.

Katharina Teuchert's and Steffen Werner's 'Aufwärmphase' (Warming-up Phase) is being shown at the Hild & K. multi-storey car park south of Willy-Brandt-Allee in Messestadt. Taking their cue from pictures of building workers moving to the rhythm of music every morning in Tokyo, Teuchert and Werner encouraged workers at nearby sites in Messestadt to take part in gymnastic exercises on the roof of the car park. They produced a video clip of the exercises that will be projected onto the front of the car park.

Claudia Heinzler and Katja Zachmann make use of an old Bavarian tradition in their 'Blauweissriem' (Blue-and-white Riem). A blue-and-white striped shadow in the form of a stylised maypole issues from the foot of the tall poplar at the corner of Lehrer-Wirth-Strasse and Maria-Montessori-Strasse. Maypoles are potent symbols of unity among various groups of people, and Heinzler and Zachmann are employing this symbol as a sign of shared identity in a suburb that is still in the process of being constructed.

Johannes Doerle, Margarete Drum and Florian Ernst connect Messestadt with nearby Kirchtrudering und Salmdorf by means of an imaginary bus route in their 'Parklinie' (Park Line). The project consists of four temporary bus stops. Stops will be set up between the school and crèche on the Promenade in Messestadt, in Strassl am Holz in Kirchtrudering and near Kirchplatz in Salmdorf. The fourth stop, located in the landscaped area south of Messestadt, will be visible on inauguration day both from the new suburb and from Gronsdorf. A U-Bahn sign will be erected in front of the school in Lehrer-Wirth-Strasse. A sound installation will simulate busses arriving and departing. Passers-by will be able to hear them but not see them.

Summer 2002