The Playground Project

To complement The Playground Project (from July 13), the Bundeskunsthalle is opening the roof garden and the museum square to Outdoor, an exhibition on the subject of “Play,” which provides contemporary artists Nevin Aladağ, Kristina Buch, Ólafur Elíasson, Jeppe Hein, Carsten Höller, Christian Jankowski, Llobet & Pons, Michel Majerus, Andreas Schmitten, Thomas Schütte, Superflex, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Alvaro Urbano and Ina Weber with an opportunity to design interactive installations and spaces, forms and utensils for play. Visitors are invited to experience art in a playful, participatory and performative manner. According to a philosophical definition of Homo ludens, play is a primary condition of the generation of culture; it is through play that Homo ludens, unlike Homo faber, develops his skills. It is in play as a fundamental, formative and necessary human activity that he/she discovers his/her individual qualities, and this experience allows him to develop his/her dormant personality. In this definition, play is equated with freedom and autonomy of mind.

“By playing, we begin to discover the world, to understand it and to find our way around in it. Play puts social conventions to the test, and, like art, it is a domain of unfettered creative activity, an end in itself, untrammelled by the twin demands of purpose and utility.”
–Rein Wolfs

Related to the exhibition The Playground Project – Outdoor Carsten Höller has developed a site-specific slide connecting the roof and the museum square, placed in front of the façade of the Bundeskunsthalle. Höller’s sculpture and Gustav Peichl’s architecture enter into a respectful symbiotic relationship that allows the visitor to see both in a new light and brings together the hitherto separate qualities of aesthetics and functionalism. The slide will remain in place for several years to be enjoyed during the outdoor season.

Carsten Höller conceives of the museum as a space that is not just devoted to the preservation of the old, but also to experimentation, innovation and to trying out unexpected ideas and concepts. He expands the medium of sculpture, turning it into a platform for playful activities that transform the physical and emotional experience of the viewer/visitor into an integral and central part of his art.

“Carsten Höller’s slide is a response to the museum—to its rules, its architecture—to the institution, but also to art itself. It represents a new, participatory form of experiencing art.”
–Rein Wolfs

Curator: Susanne Kleine
Director: Rein Wolfs
Managing Director: Patrick Schmeing

Head of Corporate Communications/Press Officer: Sven Bergmann
T +49 228 9171 204 / presse [​at​] bundeskunsthalle.de

Current exhibitions:

Marina Abramović
The Cleaner
April 20 to August 12, 2018

Nazca – Divine Drawings
Archaeological Discoveries from Southern Peru
May 10 to September 16, 2018

Soon to come:
Vajiko Chachkhiani
Heavy Metal Honey
June 29 to October 7, 2018

The Playground Project
July 13 to October 18, 2018