41472 Neuss/Holzheim
Lindenweg, junction Berger Weg
(near the Raketenstation)

The Skulpturenhalle of the Thomas Schütte Stiftung, on the edge of Neuss, is the largest and most ambitious building yet to have been realised from a model by Thomas Schütte. Models for imaginary buildings were among Schütte's early fields of work, but until a few years ago they remained fictional, poetic images for the life and work of the artist.

The Skulpturenhalle lies between the grounds of the Museum Insel Hombroich, the Kirkeby-Feld, the former Raketenstation, which also serves as an exhibition venue, and the Langen Foundation. Together these form a privately initiated exhibition district into which the Skulpturenhalle fits perfectly. The outward appearance of the hall is defined by the wooden slats fixed to the concrete outer wall, which make the long expanse read as a finely articulated skeleton. Above it stretches the convex shell of the projecting roof, visible from afar. The service building beside the hall houses the ticket desk, the library and the curator's office; its most striking feature is the chimney-like structure that serves as a light shaft for the office. On its two storeys the hall presents a place for current production: the exhibition space, which the visitor enters and which is intended for the showing of contemporary sculpture. Beneath it lies the basement, which serves the artist and his foundation as storage. At the centre of the hall is an intimate exhibition room which, by its form and its materials, marks the Skulpturenhalle unmistakably as a work by Thomas Schütte.

Dieter Schwarz