architectural art

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Ring des Seyns by Kazuo Katase at the Ludwigshafen Clinic
Parabola (two large slides) by Brunner / Ritz at the Technical University of Munich , 2002
Eberhard Bosslet : U-Bahnhof Auf dem Damm, Duisburg -Meiderich, 2001
This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Under art in building an obligation of the state in particular is seen as a builder, from its built cultural claim out a certain amount - the cost of construction of public works for - usually around 1% art to use. This obligation is laid down in corresponding regulations at the federal and state levels. Some cities such as Munich (Quivid program) or Dresden have taken on this obligation at the municipal level.

Regardless of this public objective, some private builders feel committed to the art of building and implement corresponding projects in and on their administrative or commercial buildings; Examples include Nord / LB with its administrative building in Hanover , Allianz AG with Molecule Man, which is located near the Treptowers in Berlin, or mfi Management für Immobilien AG in Essen with its numerous shopping centers.

The art of building is permanently connected inside or outside of the building or is located in the open space on the associated property. Exceptionally, art in buildings can also be found in public space in the vicinity of the building in question. In this respect, there is a certain overlap with art in public space . In principle, these two types of publicly visible art can be differentiated very precisely, but the transitions are sometimes fluid, as the viewer can hardly make an assignment. Sometimes the two terms are also used synonymously.

History of art in architecture

The beginnings of the formal art-in-building regulations in Germany go back to an initiative of the Reich Economic Association of Visual Artists. The association relied on Article 142 of the Weimar Constitution of August 11, 1919: “Art, science and teaching are free. The state grants them protection and takes part in their care. ”In view of the poor economic situation of the artists after the First World War , the Reichswirtschaftsverband had suggested among other measures to involve artists in the building programs of the Reich and state governments. The professional association was primarily concerned with alleviating the artists' financial hardship. Thereupon the Prussian Minister of the Interior issued the decree of June 28, 1928, according to which visual artists “in the construction and furnishing of state or municipal buildings more than before, with special consideration of the unemployed and in need visual artists, opportunities for work and income to be created ". In the USA, during the “New Deal” 1934–43, the Treasury Department set up a program that provided for 1% of the construction costs for “art in architecture” in public buildings.

In the “Third Reich” the demand from the Weimar Republic was taken up again and implemented at the national level in a new decree of May 22, 1934 on the participation of visual artists and craftsmen in public buildings: In this decree it was stipulated that “for all buildings of the Reich, the states, the municipalities, the corporations under public law and the corporations in which the Reich, states or municipalities hold the majority of the shares or the majority of the business shares, in principle an appropriate percentage of the construction costs for the placing of orders with visual artists and artisans must be used. ”(quoted from Petsch, 1994: 53). For the construction of service buildings, this often meant that folk decorations had to be attached.

This regulation was retained on the basis of a recommendation by the German Association of Cities at the 30th session of the German Bundestag in 1950. "In order to promote the visual arts, the federal government is requested to provide for all construction contracts (new construction and renovations) of the federal government, as far as the nature and scope of the individual construction project justify this, an amount of at least 1 percent of the construction contract sum for works by visual artists." probably the first created under this promotion as a result of ausgelobten federally art competition work is the wall relief of a rising phoenix from 1953 at the entrance of the Old deputies high-rise building , an extension of the Federal Parliament building in Bonn.

Also in the German Democratic Republic in 1952 with the “Order on the artistic design of administrative buildings” of August 22, 1952, a decisive formal relationship between visual art and architecture was created. The ordinance provided for contracts amounting to 1 to 2% of the planned construction costs to be awarded to visual and applied artists. The procedure for selecting artists, themes and implementation modalities differed greatly from those that were common in the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and later in the Federal Republic. It was demanded that the works of art should have a corresponding style that has gone down in history as socialist realism . Since 1959, a share of initially 0.2 percent (later 0.5 percent) of the planned construction costs for works of art has also been allocated to residential construction. This significantly expanded the area for art in architecture. From the mid-1960s onwards, orders for building-related art were expanded to include so-called complex environmental design. What became specific to art in building in the GDR was that the work did not only refer to a work of art tectonically connected to the building. In this broad framework, a large amount of building-related art or applied art was produced in the GDR that is no longer perceived in this context today. The artists developed design concepts for building complexes, squares, residential areas and the design of businesses, the “work environment design.” Thus, the fields of work of the artists no longer only touched those of the architects, but increasingly also those of the landscape and form designers.

It was only with the increased building volume of the 1960s that the regulation on art in architecture in the Federal Republic became more relevant from an economic point of view. Since then, new generations of artists have pushed into this very lucrative field of work. At the same time, they demanded to be involved in the planning at an earlier stage, to hold public discourse and to acknowledge social responsibility towards society. The associated change in art genres found its way into current methods of art in architecture. Another “boom” in art in architecture took place with the federal buildings in Berlin since the 1990s.

The “Guideline for the implementation of federal construction tasks in the area of ​​responsibility of the financial construction authorities (RBBau), Section K 7”, which is briefly formulated in six points, currently provides the formal framework for the artistic design of most federal buildings. In addition, there are some specific types of federal buildings that are not subject to this regulation; For example, buildings by the Bundesbank or the Ministry of Defense. According to K 7, in the case of federal construction measures, artistic design services are to be awarded to visual artists, provided the purpose and importance of the construction measure justify this. The type and scope of the artistic services are to be determined when the budget documents are drawn up so that the artistic idea can be incorporated into further processing and implemented during construction. Regarding the procedure, the guideline stipulates that competitions are generally to be held for significant measures.

Against the background of an extensive analysis of the art of building in federal buildings, the federal government, as the building owner, issued new guidelines for implementation in 2006 and again included a fixed share of 0.5 to 1.5% of the building costs (cost group 300, depending on the building cost class) / 400).

A general register of works of art that have been created on federal buildings has only been compiled since 2014. The total number since 1950 is estimated at around 10,000. A problem arises when the structure is sold to private users. Further access to the plant and, often enough, its maintenance and preservation are insufficiently secured.

Topicality and particularity of art in architecture

Sculpture shield made of COR-TEN steel by Hannes Meinhard , 1989, at the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office in Hanover

Art in architecture, with its connection to the building and the building site, is in a special area of ​​tension: the building-related narrowing makes it difficult for free artistic discussion, but on the other hand it is also a special challenge. In the course of the current architecture and building culture debate, the interest in art in building among artists and the public seems to be growing again. This raises the question of how such a development can be supported and how art in architecture can be more closely linked to the general discussion and development of art. According to the case studies, artistic genres such as sculpture and painting in large formats and long-established formal approaches dominate in art. This finding of a comprehensive investigation results from the offer of the competitors examined more closely and thus reflects the given possibilities.

There are only very few examples of media work, of time-dependent or process-related work, or of those that question their materiality, such as light work or acoustic contributions. However, if such works are offered by the artists in competitions, they are also relatively often recommended for realization by the jury.

Art in architecture is intended to create added cultural value, which is why a certain proportion of the building costs can, should or must be invested in one or more works of art in order to promote culture. At the same time, this measure serves to provide financial support for art and culture, or rather the artists. In a certain way, this continues the state patronage of earlier centuries.

So far, the art of traffic structures, as it has long been known from motorways in France, for example, is still quite unlit. There is a requirement to include these mostly state-owned buildings in the programmatic funding. Examples can already be found in particular on roundabouts.

In the past, however, the practice of building art was also subject to criticism: not only is art tied to a specific location and, in individual cases, may be reduced to the task of decorating a new building. The art-in-building regulation also often does not allow more expensive artistic projects. The city-state of Hamburg therefore changed its ordinance on art in buildings in 1966 so that certain funds flow into a central pot, the selection of projects is subordinate to an art commission (instead of the building ministry) and non-local artists can also be funded. Because of the restriction to local artists, art in buildings was repeatedly exposed to the accusation of provincialism.

Prize for art in architecture

Dagmar Schmidt: Excavation cities , Halle-Silberhöhe
Timm Ulrichs: Sunken Village , Fröttmaning

Art in architecture often goes unnoticed and is sometimes not given the meaning that it could have in itself. Against this background, it is noteworthy that there was a prize for art in architecture: the mfi prize for art in architecture was awarded from 2002 to 2013. The award, presented by the company mfi Management für Immobilien AG , was endowed with 50,000 euros and was awarded by a jury of five people.

The winners were:

literature

  • Beate Mielsch: "The historical background of the 'art-in-building' regulation" , in: Volker Plagemann (Ed.): "Art in public space. Impetus from the 80s ” , Cologne 1989, pp. 21–44.
  • Federal Association of Visual Artists (Ed.): "ProKunsT 4 - Taxes-Contracts-Insurance, Handbook for Visual Artists" , Bonn 2006 (250 pages - with detailed information on the subject of art in buildings: competitions, legal aspects, monument protection, Tenders, project planning, draft contracts, etc.)
  • BMVBS (Hrsg.): The history of art in building in Germany, BMVBS special print publication 05/2011.
  • Paolo Bianchi, Martin Seidel (Ed.): Percent Art - Art in Building in Motion . In: Kunstforum international , Volume 214, 2012.
  • Ute Cibidziura: Art in building at the federal level - history, regulations, examples . In: INSITU . Zeitschrift für Architekturgeschichte , 5, (2/2013), pp. 249–266.

Web links

Commons : Art in architecture  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pevsner, Honor, Fleming: Lexikon der Weltarchitektur . 3. Edition. Munich 1992, p. 755.
  2. ^ Winfried Nerdinger: Building under National Socialism. Bavaria 1933-1945. Munich, Architecture Museum of the TU 1993.
  3. ^ Hannes Schulz-Tattenbach: Rising Phoenix . Museum of 1000 Places ( Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning )
  4. ↑ Angelika Schyma : Art in building on the buildings of the Bonn Republic - registration and assessment under monument law . In: Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Development (Ed.): Art value, asset value, monument value. What is the value of art in architecture? - 11th workshop talk, documentation , September 2012, pp. 11–15.
  5. ↑ a b More than just decor for buildings . Tagesspiegel , June 21, 2014
  6. ↑ Gottfried Sello: Don't be afraid of Henry Moore - Hamburg has reformed the art-in-building ordinance . In: Die Zeit , No. 18/1966