Bee garden

Bee garden
	;
Surname	Bee garden (also: bee plant garden with figure sticks)
object	Landscape architectural installation
Artist	Jeanette Zippel (* 1963)
execution	?
Construction year	1993
location	Stuttgart , Wartberg
Height above sea level	approx. 310 m
material	6 sculptures made of oak, rye straw, clay and wickerwork, clinker
Dimensions	Base area: diameter 16m ; Figures: height 2.20–2.60 m

The " bee garden " (also: "bee garden with animated sculptures") is a landscape architecture installation by the artist Jeanette Zippel on the Wartberg site in Stuttgart.

In the clearing of a wooded area, six figure-shaped sculptures made of natural materials are installed in a round area with a diameter of approx. 16 m. They provide shelter for wild and honey bees . “The choreographic structure” of the gravel path, which cuts through the garden in the middle, “is reminiscent of the bees' form of communication, the waggle dance”. The plant fields were filled exclusively with nutrient plants for bees, which are allowed to develop freely here and therefore partly overgrown the sculptures.

The "bee garden" is one of the "art stations" that were built for the International Horticultural Exhibition in 1993 (IGA '93) in the park landscape of the Green U in Stuttgart and that were retained after the exhibition.

Note: Numbers in brackets, e.g. B. (12), refer to the corresponding numbers in the plan of the Wartberg area.

location

Plan of the Wartberg area.

The "Bienengarten" art station (1) is located between Stresemannstrasse and Gunterstrasse on St.-Helens-Weg (17).

description

Animated sculptures

In each of the two plant fields there are three sculptures, to which Jeanette Zippel was inspired by Silesian figurines and the ban baskets in the Lüneburg Heath (see concept ). The round sculptures, tapering in the middle and over two meters high, consist of two spindle-shaped parts, "a bee-like lower body and [a] human upper body", and represent "a cultural and historical reference to Artemis , the fertility and protective goddess of bees".

Originally, there were two sculptures made of dark, layered oak wood and a sculpture made of sewn rye straw for honey bees. The vessel-like interiors were designed for 6 bee colonies, who could build a natural honeycomb structure in them. Over time, two of these sculptures were replaced by other wild bee sculptures made of sandstone. An oak wood sculpture for honey bees has been preserved. All other sculptures are intended for different wild bees. One of the wild beehives is made of clay and wickerwork, one is also made of oak and one is made of round-hole bricks with inserted bamboo sticks. By using natural materials, the artist wants to create a direct reference to the natural habitats of the bee colony.

Status

The bee garden with animated sculptures was reopened in May 2019 after extensive repairs.

Before repair (May 2018)

After the repair (Sept. 2019)

concept

Jeanette Zippel based her installation on the following considerations:

The artistic design of the bee plant garden is based on the waggle dance of the honey bee, whereby the dance form of the bee becomes a walking form for humans. The shape of the path surrounds two fields of plants, which are separated from each other by the middle path of the waggle dance, the "waggle phase". In the plant fields, as well as in the entire area around the bee garden, there are only nutrient plants for bees with special consideration for mutually specialized wild plants and bees. The bee plant garden carries the flowers and makes the bees dance.

Six sculptures stand in the inner curves of the "wagging phase". The inspiration for the design of the sculptures was the traditional shape of the “figure sticks” from Silesia, figuratively carved beehives in wood, which mainly depicted saints, as well as the “ban baskets” of the Lüneburg Heath, beehives made of rye straw designed as human heads and grimaces.

The "bee plant garden with figurines" is designed as an artistic project to improve the existing natural stock at the location far beyond the IGA. The range of nesting opportunities provided by the sculptures and the increased supply of nutrient plants will increase the habitat of the wild bees year after year and thus add a dimension to the term “sculpture in public space”.

literature

Ralf Arbogast: Stuttgart, the green experience. Recreational landscapes, parks and garden shows in the past and present . Tübingen 1993, pp. 91-92.
Rolf Fischer: Stuttgart and the Green U. The park landscape from Killesberg to the palace gardens . Stuttgart 2003, pp. 18–95, here: 82.
Tamara Hub: Jeanette Zippel, Bienengarten 1993 . In: Bärbel Küster (Ed.); Wolfram Janzer (photos): Sculptures of the 20th century in Stuttgart . Heidelberg 2006, pp. 229-231.
City of Stuttgart (Ed.): Jeanette Zippel: Bienengarten, 1993 . stuttgart.de accessed in 2013.
Frank Werner (ed.); Christof Luz (essay); Hans Luz (essay): Art-Nature-Drama. Earthworks beyond the IGA 1993 Stuttgart . Stuttgart 1993, pp. [58-59].

Web links

Commons : Beehive - collection of images, videos and audio files

Jeanette Zippel: Bee Garden, 1993 . Website of the city of Stuttgart.
Bee garden IGA '93 . Website by Jeanette Zippel.

Individual evidence

↑ #Stuttgart 2013

↑ The plan is based on an OpenStreetMap map.

↑ Source: Explanatory text on the notice board for Jeanette Zippel's lively wild bee sculpture with bee garden in the patient garden of the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart.