© NELE STROEBEL

Im lot _ an installation about silence

Competition for the atrium of the Spastics Center in Munich-Sendling, 2004

The central atrium of the newly constructed Spastics Center in Munich opens onto the rooms of the center's facilities: a pre-school, school, rooms for vocational training, care, therapy and further training as well as administrative offices.

Flooded with light, the atrium is a place where people connect and communicate. It is used as a cafeteria, lounge, meeting and conference room.

The artistic task was finding a solution that would bridge the gap between the concept of a hall as a room landscape with canyons, valleys and peaks and the daily learning and therapy processes of daily users.

Into this inner world with its insights and perspectives, I laid a horizon line on which the outline of a fern tree is reflected seven meters in the air. The eighteen parts of the surface's opening are paired with each other, connected at a distance of ten centimeters.

Im lot tries to do this in a multifaceted manner.

I wanted to create an installation about silence. About silence as we perceive it in a lake mirroring trees and clouds. About the silence that develops when we are in harmony with ourselves.

Basic geometric and overall spatial form

The 18 parts of this metal sculpture develop their contours from the nine concentrical surface openings of a fern tree. This has been fabricated twice; the two are mounted at mirror images to each other. The result is nine centrosymmetrical elements parallelly placed over a ten-meter length in the building and braced by 36 thin stainless steel cables.

Im lot spans nine steps and two floors of the room.

Its elements measure between 70 and 320 centimeters in width and 30 to 500 centimeters in height.
The largest individual piece measures 2 x 3.2 meters.