Before the Neue Nationalgalerie closes for a few years, Dan Stockholm has arranged to open all the doors of the building for fifteen minutes, from 11:00 – 11:15am on Oct. 31, 2014. The distinct modernist building, designed by the renowned Bauhaus architect Mies van der Rohe was specifically designed as a floating, open space. Now, as the building prepares for renovation, Stockholm has arranged for every single door on the upper and lower story to be opened at the same time, creating a breath of air that will flow throughout the entire building. Responding to Berlin’s concerns with architecture, change, history, and memory, this movement of air – a inhale or an exhale – personifies the building as a living body that is a dynamic participant in the city space, and one that prepares to withdraw for a rehabilitory sleep, for the five years during which it will be closed to the public.
This event compliments David Chipperfield’s recent installation of 143 tree trunks in the bare and monumental upper floor of the museum, titled “Sticks and Stones: An Intervention”. Stockholm’s work is part of The Festival of Future Nows, a series of creative engagements with “Sticks and Stones” and the Neue Nationalgalerie architecture, with performances, sculptures, lectures, and installations organized by the Institut für Raumexperimente (Institute for Spatial Experiments). There are two more days of The Festival of Future Nows events coming up, on Oct. 31, from 10am – 10pm, and on Nov. 31, from 10am – 10pm.
Blog entry by Alena Sokhan in Berlin; Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014.
