Summer Festival Installation: Himmel und Hölle (Heaven and Hell)

Karin Damrau’s project “Heaven and Hell” is a temporary playing field marked on the meadow between the Akademie and the bordering forest with grass chalk. Lawn chairs to be used freely are set up on the 85m x 90m surface. Fields that are organized at right angles and that are completely surrounded result in “play areas” of varying sizes and qualities. The visitor is invited to spatially and playfully explore the area.

“Heaven and Hell” creates relationships to space from various viewpoints. On the one hand it refers to the castle’s history and its extensive Rococo gardens through ornament and the labyrinth motif. On the other, the project creates a connection to modern use of a green surface as a location of recreation and leisure through the use of its marking system.

Karin Damrau (*1970 in Darmstadt) studied architecture at the FHT Stuttgart (1995 diploma), the École Nationale superieure d´architecture et de paysage de Bordeaux (1993) and at Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (Master of Architecture 1998). Since 1999 she has taught in the architecture department at the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen. She is also a partner at Damrau Kusserow Architects, Cologne (http://www.damrau-kusserow.de). Damrau is a 2006/2007 Akademie fellow.

Depending on weather the installation is on view for two to ten days (as long as the chalk markings stay visible on the lawn)