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Normally, the soup should have been cooked in Bonn at the Kunstcafe today, but unfortunately the date has been canceled at short notice. However, I dont need to think about alternatives, because Carola from the Cafetin is willing to step in promptly. So the soup spends another sunny day on the gravel beach of the steel bridges bay.
Knowing that the soup is in good hands, I will act on Stefanies suggestion to visit the Museum Island Hombroich, about 10km far from Düsseldorf. When I come back to the gravel beach at 18h I do no longer believe in fortuities, if the soupdate in Bonn not had been cancelled, I had missed the visit of the Museum Iland Hombroich and had robbed myself of one of the most remarkable museum expieriences, that ever happend to me.
You enter the park by crossing a steep staircase and suddenly find yourself in a garden, that first seems like a wide-ranging wilderness of moorland, floodplain, green thicket and quiet ponds. From the very first I am fascinated by the fullness of marvelous perspectives. Wherever I look, my eyes glance at details of gorgious compositions, which are - although highly artificial - never reveal themself being created, but rather look like being arised out of nature.
I amble on narrow gravel walks, while passing pollen covered waters, walk through tunnels of leafage and grove and find myself all of a sudden in front of a huge brick-lined cube. The tall, slender door is open and from inside the cube glittering light spills out into the opal half-light under the green roofs of leaf. This contrast between the inner white and the dark, rough surface of the pavillon, makes the sublimated interior space with the natural, organic exterior space fall into place in an almost ingenious manner. The antipodes of nature and art seem to be sublated here, not in the way to make both disappear, moreover to show how natural things and artificial things are mutually dependent and thereby, in first place to make each one visible. Eleven of such cubical-shaped pavillons, created by the sculptor Erwin Heerich, are scattered throughout the area to house one of the most remarkable, privat art collections I have ever seen. And another important detail: On the whole area, as well as inside the pavillons there is neither a discription to be found, nor a hint or any other explanatory or didactical crutch. There are no guards, no watchdogs, no barriers, no names. Not a single piece of art is marked with a hint, like name or titel, year of origination, size or material, even though you can find works from Rembrandt, Brancusi, Klimt and Giacometti in the collection. Only the art works themselves and the space surrounding them tell their own tale.
An exhibition concept, that is diametrically opposed to the security- and profit oriented mainstream museum.
Works from Schwitters, Arp and Picabia are in contrast to the sculptures of the Khmer or Glass crafts from China of the 18th century. Every exhibit is placed after careful consideration in view of optimum presence inside the white cubes. Again and again you come across the fascinating inside - outside game. Bounds become blurred. Where is inside, where is outside? I step out to the light cube and go into the green thicket. I move out to the artificial room to enter the real room. I move inside of me to step out and outside of me to step in. This park- and museum area is a monumental variation, dealing with the subject of interior- and exterior space. It puzzles and clears and best of all, it causes amazement.
So I leave this park in the late afternoon, filled up with a big portion of amazement and amazing things, pick up the soup at Carolas' Cafetin and sit down on the Rheinufer Promenade, where one can indulge in the beauty of the sunset every day with legroom and cost-free.
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