"In the Valley"

"There are places that one would rather conceal than reveal to the public" wrote Shirin Sojitrawalla in ZEIT-Museumsfüher No. 145, DIE ZEIT No. 27, 23.06.2012. More than forty artists - landscape architects-architects-sculptors-writers-musicians - accepted the invitation of sculptor Erwin Wortelkamp to design the landscape between Hasselbach and Werkhausen in the Westerwald. In doing so, they make use of the characteristic features of the landscape: Valley space, stream, meadows, pastures, copses and forest.
'im Tal' is not a park landscape, but a near-natural cultural landscape with extensive agricultural use, which is increasingly in discourse with the surrounding agricultural landscape. The landscape itself becomes an accessible large-scale sculpture. Mostly mown paths open up the now ten-hectare site, into which around fifty site-specific, multifaceted works of art have been integrated. Art and nature seek a cautious dialogue here in different ways. The result - a private initiative - is a unique site in Europe. In an interview in DIE ZEIT No. 22 of 24 May 2012, Horst Bredekamp describes the "Valley" as "one of the most magnificent gardens of today with an enormous aura".

Jörg van den Berg writes in: Künstler, kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, 2003:
"The context 'in the valley' acts like a large, open sculpture for communication: a private space made available to the public, in which attention is directed equally to works of art and to landscape. Here, collaborations and dialogues take place in the mode of foreign voices. At no point is an overview of the whole made possible, so that the visitor must become a constant actor if he wants to experience the complexity of the installation. ... Art shapes a landscape as an integral component, does not show itself 'in the valley' as an image or representation, does not withdraw into commentary - as is so often the case in public space: art shapes reality here without blurring the boundaries. On the contrary, the staging 'in the valley' seems to clearly emphasize the aesthetic boundary. It virtually shows the pleasure in difference. ..."

For more information on the overall design and all those involved in the project, please visit www.im-tal.de/werke.

Carola Schnug-Börgerding has been involved in the project since 1986. In addition to the overall landscape design, she is also in charge of the necessary approval procedures and designed the garden in front of the school building.