© NELE STROEBEL

hortus conclusus – monastery garden

Publisher's announcement

Nele Ströbel • Walter Zahner (Publ.) HORTUS CONCLUSUS
Deutscher Kunstverlag München Berlin

PUBLISHERS:

NELE STROEBEL M.A.: Study of ceramics and sculpture at the University for Applied Art in Vienna, graduated with M.A. Guest professorships in Berlin and Munich. Numerous solo exhibitions and artistic installations in architectural settings. Represented in national and international art collections. Project publications include spacework-urbanwork, 1998. reparaturen der welt, 2002. imbenge dreamhouse, 2005. Lives and works in Munich.

DR. WALTER ZAHNER: Study of catholic theology in Bamberg, Paris, Muenster and Munich. Head of Catholic Adult Education in the Regensburg diocesis. Member of the DG presidium (Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst e. V.)

ISBN 978-3-422-06658-8
Deutscher Kunstverlag

The hortus conclusus, the enclosed garden, was one of the most popular motives in medieval art. In reference to the Song of Solomon, it interprets the virgin Mary as a fruitful, but closed garden.

This book handles the biblical roots of the garden motive and the hortus conclusus in art history. It describes the significance of the garden as a vision of paradise and as a space in today's isolated monastical life for contemplation and recreation.

Based on the idea and concept of Nele Stroebel, the sculptor, along with photographer Ulrike Myrzik visited the "horti conclusi" of 15 convents between July and October 2006. Via interviews with nuns as well as photographs, drawings and their realization into sculptures, they examine such questions as "How can a place store memories?" "Do enclosed gardens have special measurement and classification systems?" "How can spirituality be lived and spatially experienced in the 21st century?"

The illustrations of insights and impressions in this book bridge the gap to contemporary artistic confrontations with the subject.