Mostra David Chipperfield. Sticks and Stones.

David Chipperfield Architects have been charged with renovating and revamping the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Now – 50 years after it was designed and built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – this museum is in need of a delicate, respectful makeover. 
So the exhibition, “Sticks and Stones. An Intervention” aims to set off the original features of the building, whose overhanging steel roof is supported by eight narrow steel supports.
The installation consists of 144 barked tree trunks, which have been erected in a tight grid on the granite floor and rise up eight metres to the steel roof: a reference to building’s fundamental questions. Trunks and columns, nature and architecture to honour the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, by creating a visually striking space.
Then, like a clearing in the woods, in the middle of the trunks is a 200-square metre area that will be used for a series of events in the run-up to David Chipperfield’s renovation of the Neue Nationalgalerie.
The exhibition is open to the general public until 31 December 2014, and in case you were wondering: the spruce trees come from the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern forest, and were originally planted as part of a forestry experiment. They are now being cleared to make room for new trees to create a mixed forest.

(Christiane Bürklein)

Exhibition: Sticks and Stones
Curator: David Chipperfield
Location: Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Dates: from 2 October to 31 December 2014
Images: Courtesy of Neue Nationalgalerie, see captions

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