TRANSFORMATION - Beyond Imagination
A chain carousel in the cooling tower of a nuclear power plant, a marathon run underground in a salt mine, a photovoltaic power plant in the middle of the runway of a military airport, a camping site with beach in the exit of a submarine bunker, walkers on the death strip of the German-German border. TRANSFORMATION - Beyond Imagination - Beyond the imagination of those who planned and built these plants.
The works show huge the landscape shaping constructions which no longer are needed for their original purpose. What has happened? Some are reused for a new benefit, values are being created, examples are Berlin Tempelhof Cityairport which after having been closed for air traffic, now is open to public as a large recreational area, the Oldenburg Airbase which now is a large photovoltaic field and is being developed to become a smart city or former brown coal mines which are being converted to natural resorts. The never operational nuclear power plant at Kalkar, which is now Family Park Wonderland. Others cannot be reused due to their structure, an example is Bremen submarine bunker Valentin, which was built during World War II by thousands of forced workers, was never used and still is a landmark in an otherwise pleasant recreational area. Members of a third group are constructions of historical importance which could be fully dismantled, however shall serve as a memorial for the current and future generations. An example is the German-German border, with checkpoints, walls, and razor wires. The last category in my project includes technical or architectural constructions, which at the end of their usefulness are replaced by better constructions. An example are office buildings in Frankfurt, the outer walls of which are maintained to keep at least partially the urban image of the 60s, while constructing a completely new and state of the art inner building within the old outer walls.
