LUFTSCHLOSS UNTERGRUND : Christian Jankowski
LUFTSCHLOSS UNTERGRUND, Jankowski reflects on the impracticable dream of the Humboldt Forum, which reached into the past to create a new cultural institution for Germany. As a partial rebuilding of the Berliner Schloss, a Baroque palace that was originally home to Prussian kings, it has become an accidental monument to the layers of trauma that permeate the city.
The palace was damaged by bombs during the Second World War. Its remains were destroyed by the German Democratic Republic, then in the 1970s the Palast der Republik was built in its place, which was demolished upon reunification. What would a castle for the twenty-first century look like? In the decades of debate between architects, planners, politicians, and historians, some felt left out.
A little way down Unter den Linden, Jankowski asked the construction crew working on the new Château Royal hotel, also a partial reconstruction of a historic building, to take a break and draw an imaginary castle. They made their drawings on architectural plans found on site: colourful marks appear over coffee stains and technical outlines of plumbing and electrical systems. Of these, one was realized as a neon sculpture. Installed on a balcony overlooking the hotel’s internal courtyard, at night it seems to float, opening a dialogue with the surrounding cityscape. Enlarged and illuminated, Jankowski’s treatment of the untrained sketch refers to the glorification of the working class in the time of the erased Palast der Republik. Additionally, he addresses the class system within architecture through the payment terms for each participant: they were paid for their time according to their usual hourly rate, but whenever a castle is acquired as an artwork, the sketcher receives a percentage of the sale, much like an architect’s fee.
The show opens on the International Worker's Day. Symbolically aligning with the meaning of the work, the 1st of May commemorates the struggles and gains made by the labour movement.
