Kirchplatz Metro Station - Enne Hähnle "Spur X"
Published on 03/09/2024
A mysterious thread in architecture
A bright orange thread squiggles along the wall, along the ceiling, deeper and deeper into the station room. We follow the line and wonder what it is all about. As we pass by, we discover something: "good" is written in orange on white on the wall. In the next step, the word blurs back into the twisted steel mounted on the wall. A few meters later, another fragment: "on the tongue". We stop and begin to examine the surrounding curved lines. What else is written there?
"Spur X" - The artwork in Kirchplatz Metro Station
"Spur X" is the title of the work by Enne Hähnle, which inevitably confronts passengers at Kirchplatz metro station. The luminosity of the powder-coated strings of drawn steel attracts attention as soon as you step onto the stairs and involves the passenger in a confrontation with the installation, which initially appears abstract. He follows the trail into the lower level, always on the lookout for a clue about what the orange thread is all about. Like a detective, he follows the trail and tries to decipher the clues. "X" stands for the clue to be discovered. However, the clues are not clear. Due to the spatial deformation of the writing and the way it is woven into the architecture, the individual text fragments only reveal themselves from certain angles.
A visual expedition
The architecture of the metro station and the artwork form an intimate symbiosis and underline the unique approach that the architects and artists have developed together. The top priority was to integrate the entire line into the city and the associated living space. The open design of the entrance from the plateau of the church square with the funnel-shaped air space running along the side creates a direct visual connection between the rail level and the surface. This eliminates a clear separation between the above-ground and underground levels and adds a lower level to the cityscape.
Art and architecture in dialog
The artwork takes on the communicative aspect and engages the public in a dialog through its enigmatic appearance. The functional station space becomes a communication space and integrates the passenger as part of the architecture. The curved text sculpture by Enne Hähnle forms a counterpoint to the linear architecture, which extends into the depths like a cut. The curved lines of the lettering counteract the straight geometry and weave the space into an organic structure. The seemingly static space develops its own dynamic through the close relationship with the artwork and breaks the boundary between usable space and living space.
A challenge for architectural photography
For me as an architectural photographer, this installation represents a special challenge and at the same time an appealing task. In this particular case, the architectural photography had to do justice to the complexity and depth of the architecture, while at the same time incorporating the artwork on an equal footing. By choosing different angles and perspectives, I documented the hidden clues and the symbiosis of art and architecture in such a way that the viewer can also recognize the clues in different shots. In this way, the complex relationship between space and artwork can also be experienced visually through architectural photography. A selection of the images can be found on the project page "Kirchplatz Metro Station".
