Kinderszenen - from June 26 to August 28, 2005 - Wasserschloss Groß Leuthen

The Rohkunstbau XII “Kinderszenen - Child’s Play” reflects the history of the building as well as the individual memories of the artists. Rohkunstbau XII is a trip down memory lane - a journey which is rewritten each time it is taken, always revealing its relationship to the here and now in new and unexpected ways.

Thirteen internationally renowned artists have travelled to the countryside to find inspiration as they remember their childhood and reflect on the nature of being a child today. They have created their works specifically for Gross Leuthen Castle, which during and after the Second World War served as an orphanage and has thus for over a half century been witness to hundreds of experiences, children’s dreams and children’s fates. Very different from one another, the rooms of the castle mirror the conglomerate of styles that characterise the whole structure. Their spellbinding diversity has served both as a challenge and inspiration to the participating artists. Robert Schumann, the romantic composer who wrote his thirteen pieces “Kinderszenen” in 1838 reflects upon childlike impressions from an adult point of view. A more poetic understanding of “Child’s Play” makes reference to imaginative powers and remembrance in generell.

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In Michael Kutschbach’s installation we have a fictive playful environment, an array of organic forms like melting biomorphic bricks, a passing reference no doubt to the toys created by Friederich Froebel, the inventor of the kindergarten, whom the artist recently discovered. The analogy between the child’s play-room and the artist’s studio are very important to this Australian artist, and since it is located in one of the sleeping rooms of the former orphanage the work is called uschi and irvin make merry masquerades (sheeping sleep). The deliberate use of the lower case by the artist in the work’s title reinforces and underlines that which lies hidden beneath the surface of the mind. And, it’s location next to the room containing the Louise Bourgeois works further emphasises those troubling mentors of the unconscious. 

Gisbourne, Mark, extract from: Scenes from Childhood. Rohkunstbau 12 catalogue essay, 2005 p.32 Rohkunstbau XII, p.138