gabriele horndasch, der neue reeser platz, 2020-2022 (english)

Der Neue Reeser Platz

2nd prize International Ideas Competition 39er-Denkmal Reeser Platz Düsseldor Düsseldorf

Idea: Gabriele Horndasch
Design: Gabriele Horndasch & BIERBAUM.AICHELE.landschaftsarchitekten Frankfurt
Model: Florian Deiss, Düsseldorf
Client: Kunstkommission Düsseldorf

Excerpt from „Five quetions about the design“

As I stood in front of the monument, I wondered: Does it even make sense? Can I even begin to deal with the militaristic, national-socialist narrative of this monument artistically? And if so, what would be the best strategy?
Looking at the monument from the river’s edge, an idea came to mind: Fill it up! My point is to stop the memorial from continuing to tell its deceitful story. The Memorial to the 39th Fusilier Regiment is a site of militaristic propaganda disguised as a place of mourning.
The Nazis were never interested in mourning the dead soldiers, only in mobilising for the next war.
My point is not to hide the monument, but to invalide it. Just as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was encased in a sarcophagus to protect the population from toxic radiation, the soldiers carved in relief marching out of the tomb into the next war are to be covered with earth.
The Nazi memorial will be overwritten or rather their changes will be written back [...]