Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt

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The Mathildenhöhe Kristallisationsort an artistic presence

"A city we must build an entire city! Everything else is nothing! The government should give us (...) a field, and we then want to create a world. "These words of the architect Joseph Maria Olbrich, one of the driving forces of the Darmstadt artists' colony in 1900, just crystallize that spirit of change, the almost unbridled vitality , which is a youth yearning for progress in the face of the new century took hold. Youth? Yes. Recent supporters Olbrich, Paul Bürck Patriz and Huber, came with 21 on the Mathildenhöhe, the eldest, Hans Christiansen, was just 33 years old. Style? Yes. Style and awareness of form had these first seven multi-talented, these architects, painters, sculptors and artisans that should characterize the Darmstadt artists' colony in 1899, no doubt. But: Was it really "only" Art Nouveau, which emerged at the end of it? The label adheres firmly - but it's really apt?

Seems to me at least "Art Nouveau" as a term to fall short to describe what constitutes the Darmstadt artists' colony really. As for me as the new Director of Mathildenhöhe to this extraordinary initiative in 1900 fascinated, that is the tangible to the present day artistic energy Mathildenhöhe, created by the will to create a new world - not as a model but on a scale of 1:1 .

Here in Darmstadt was and is to Bigger than the design of a saucer or a draft of a bookmark, so can the craft and finesse stylized Schönlinigkeit these individual objects again and again causing admiration. Olbrich's words quoted above speak it out clearly: a both an aesthetic and effective urban planning work of art was the goal. The Hessian by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig initiated artist colony was aimed at something that is now more than ever: the appreciation of the living environment as a whole, another attempt to make more than just everyday experience.

Here on the Mathildenhöhe then were no exhibitions of any pre-built works, but it emerged, as established for example in the seminal exhibition "A Document of German Art" of 1901, specially for the occasion, totally aesthetically designed arts centers. Olbrich again: "What good three, five, ten beautiful homes, if the chair is not beautiful or not beautiful are the plates? No - a field, otherwise it can not be done. An empty, wide field, and since then we want to show what we can: in the entire plant down to the last detail ... "

That was the new thing that was the actual determination of the innovative artists' colony: the world of aesthetic designs in extreme compression to convene. At this creative energy tie we want: Approximately in the realization of large-scale intervention artist for the opening exhibition "Mathilda is calling". Or as in the development of a "body" experiential Total installation on the theme "time" with the French master artist Christian Boltanski. Or - even more distant future - with the presentation of contemporary arts centers in the Mathildenhöhe. Since then it might be, once again, the result is a "city".

Ralf Beil