SCULPTURE AT THE PARLIAMENT OF NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIA, GERMANY

Every year, the Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf organises open-house days, during which tens of thousands of visitors come to learn about the work carried out there. However, it is not just politics and elected officials that attract the public to the seat of the federal State Government. There is also great interest in the architecture of the building and in the art housed there, including works from famous artists such as Günther Uecker, Jörg Immendorff and Otto Piene. One of the Parliament’s newest acquisitions is the sculpture Im Aufbruch by Stefanie Schenk-Busse and Björn Busse.

The ensemble of five large rectangular steel columns was created specifically for the space in front of the new administrative wing of the Parliament building that faces the banks of the Rhine. The 4.30-metre-high stainless steel blocks are arranged in a semi-circle corresponding to the layout of the space they occupy. Their polished stainless steel surfaces feature a crack that runs across each of the columns. Untreated, rusty corten steel breaks up the otherwise immaculate, reflective surfaces of the columns.

“Our work focused on the contrast between perfection and imperfection,” Stefanie Schenk-Busse said, in explaining about one aspect of the sculpture. The reflective effect offers another level of interpretation – the steles capture images of passers-by, as a symbol of the people, as well as images of the Parliament building, representing the Government.

The lighting for the sculpture was developed by lighting designer Peter Andres, who worked closely with the artists. Together they decided to highlight the cracks in the steles in the darkness. To accomplish the design, six WE-EF ETC140 GB LED gimbal inground uplights have been arranged evenly in a grid formation at the foot of each column – with the gimbal unit of each luminaire precisely directed at different sections of the sculpture. All the luminaires feature 24 LEDs with [EE] very narrow beam distribution and a colour temperature of 3000 K.

Architects: Planungsbüro DTP Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH, Essen / Artist: Stefanie Schenk-Busse und Björn Buss
Lighting Designer: Peter Andres, Consultants for Lighting Design, Hamburg