Ludwigs Gartenhaus / Ludwig’s Garden House

Thomas Virnich’s intervention in the park at the Ludwig Forum was created for the building’s opening in 1991. At first glance, the sculpture is reminiscent of ruins, which have a long tradition as an element of landscape architecture. In fact, an empty, dilapidated greenhouse served as the starting point for the work.
The artist filled the fragmented remains of this structure with large handmade bricks, which had to be hollow in order to bake them. The interior of the building became a sculpture that retained an imprint of the former exterior of the building. The sculpture reflects the artist’s interest in the interplay between surface and space, interior and exterior — here, he makes the hidden interior visible by covering it up.

Further reading:
Brigitte Franzen: “Wo ist der Garten? oder die Gärtner kehren zurück,” in: Atelier Le Balto: Les pieds sur terre, ed. Brigitte Franzen. Publisher: Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne 2010, pp. 134–135.
Thomas Virnich: alles wirklich, Hanover 1996, p. 37.