ALLES GLÜHT UND BLÜHT

site-specific installation in public space / wood, HDF hard board, steel wire, props / 2020

When Heinrich Heine spent three months in Potsdam in the spring of 1829, after visiting the Sanssouci Palace, he wrote in a letter to Friederike Robert, whom he admired: "… alles glüht und blüht, aber wie! Du heiliger Gott! Das ist alles nur ein gewärmter, grünangestrichener Winter, und auf den Terrassen stehen Fichtenstämmchen, die sich in Orangenbäume maskiert haben.“
("... everything is glowing and blooming, but how! Holy God! It's all just a warmed, green-painted winter, and on the terraces are spruce trunks masquerading as orange trees.")

Although Heine's visit and his descriptions were almost 200 years ago, the development of Potsdam can be discussed on the basis of the scenery he attested: the destruction of the war, demolitions and urban redevelopment during the GDR era and three decades of discursive urban development since the fall of the Berlin Wall have shaped Potsdam. The artist’s collective Situation Room questions the authenticity of architecture by applying Heine's quotation to the facades of Werner-Seelenbinder-Straße. The student dormitory, the construction site of the reconstructed tower of the Garnisonskirche, the Rechenzentrum, the Nagelkreuzkapelle, the facade of the Langer Stall, the Jewish community and a baroque residential building with their different styles, functions and epochs become the bearers of the question of urban continuity and tradition of representation in Potsdam .

with Situation Room