We all know what a square is: an area in a built rural or urban environment that is surrounded by buildings. But what is art in a square? Should it take the form of a fountain, of a sculpture, of lamps? Works of art in such public spaces often seem like optional extras, once fashionable accessories that have long since ceased to attract attention. The artist Karin Sander, who is based in Stuttgart and Berlin, and the team of Berlin landscape architects Lützow 7 have drawn their own radical consequences from a state of affairs that is depressing for artists and architects alike: they have succeeded in keeping a square largely free of furnishings and decoration. The square, Willy-Brandt-Platz in Messestadt, has yet to be built, but the artistic activity of Sander and Lützow 7 has already been one of prevention, of maintaining the purity of an urban situation. The invisibility of their intervention is itself a form of emphasis, a way of pointing to what is most important. The lack of visible art focuses attention on the space more than any decorative object ever could.
Sander and Lützow 7 do not wish to add to the many functions that the square already fulfils. Their project therefore involves minimal adjustments to the space. Its trapezoid shape will be echoed in strips at the edges with distinctive paving, lamps and rows of trees in front of the façades on either side. The paving will mark places where people can gather and function like carpets leading to buildings. Otherwise, the square will be defined almost entirely by the large empty space in the middle - a space left blank by Sander and Lützow 7 so that it can be used in any way as the need arises. They speak of it as a projection surface and, funds permitting, they would like to give visible form to this idea by means of projected lighting effects. Whether or not this happens, the main impression created by the square is to be one of an open, uncluttered space: 'The large surface works against divisions, against small-scale urban design, and establishes a focal point in terms of colour and material. Willy-Brandt-Platz is to be a monochrome, homogeneous forum in which anything can happen.'

Willy-Brandt-Platz was always destined to become the main public space in Messestadt, larger than Marienplatz in the centre of Munich. Because it was to be a special place, from the outset artists were involved in its design rather than being simply post factum providers of decoration. To this end, Cornelia Müller and Jan Wehberg of Lützow 7 and Karin Sander were invited to draw up a proposal, which in 2001 was welcomed by a jury of architects and town planners. Since then, the plans have been revised and expanded to accommodate the wishes of the City of Munich and the architectural givens of the urban environment. Work is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2004.
Willy-Brandt-Platz will eventually form a generously dimensioned forecourt, opening in the north on to Willy-Brandt-Allee, which will be Messestadt's commercial centre. The Riem Arcades are already under construction here. Housing a hotel, a fitness centre, a multiple cinema and a mall, the Arcades will become the centre of shopping and entertainment in the suburb. They will dominate Willy-Brandt-Platz, their columns dividing the space in two. How the square is used and how it looks will thus be determined by the function and the appearance of the adjacent buildings.

Summer 2003