2020

auf Anfrage zugänglich

Grund- und Mittelschule an der Schrobenhausener Straße, 80686 München

Eingefärbter Beton, verschiedene Größen

Colored concrete, various sizes

Architecture: Schwinde Architekten, München

Landscape architecture: kübertlandschaftsarchitektur, München

Photos: Florian Holzherr

Text: Cornelia Gockel

Nobody really wants to stay behind at school. But with Ayşe Erkmen’s installation that might be completely different. For the new wing of the elementary and middle school on Schrobenhausener Strasse, she created six independent sculptures that double as benches, inviting people to sit during recess. The German title is a play on the words sitzen bleiben (“staying seated”) and Sitzenbleiben (having to repeat a year of school).

But the shapes of the sculptures themselves are also playful. They recall the colorful wooden blocks from childhood. Erkmen made the yellow and orange components out of colored concrete, basing their color scheme on the existing architecture. The building was designed in the 1950s by the architect Sep Ruf, one of Germany’s most important architects during the post-war years.

Erkmen chose the space in between the school and the gym as the site, which was designed like a boulevard with trees by the landscape architects. Setting a colorful accent, Erkmen’s six benches fit in between the two like independent geometrical forms in a rhythmic arrangement. The diversity of their shapes means that there are different possible ways for the students to use them. With her artistic setting, Erkman picks up on existing structures, guides the eye to things overlooked and forgotten, and builds bridges between the past and the present.