Client: City of Munich

Location: Munich, Germany

Completion date: 2015

Project Team

Industry Resource

Katja Zukic

Bayerische Hofglasmalerei Gustav van Treeck

Artist

Christoph Brech

Client

City of Munich

Overview

In the Munich Westfriedhof, a piece of video art by Christoph Brech is rematerialized by glass mosaics. Together, the two mosaics form the centrepiece of and lend their name to the new communal facility for urn graves of the city. With square tesserae of one centimetre (smalts), the motifs of a length of seven meters and a height of 1,37 meters create the impression of one harmonious picture. In addition, the mosaicists of the workshops created two medium blue water basins which invite visitors to the graveyard to take some time to pause.

Goals

The idea to integrate mosaic art into the new urn grave unit existed from the very beginning. The goal was to donate peace and moments of contemplation to the visitors of the graves. As central moments of the unit the glass mosaic artwork is essential for the whole complex.

Process

The studios Gustav van Treeck suggested the artist to the client. He presented his ideas for several motifs to them. "Il Ponte" - the bridge motif and the idea to bring back the video clip into reality with the ancient material of mosaic was convincing. Based on two stills the studio's designers created a one-to-one pattern. The choice of the colors was labor-intensive as there nuances have to fitch to the draft. Therefor a common journey of the studio's management and the artist to the origins of glass mosaic was helpful. The very detailed pattern at end helped to assemble the mosaic without too much presence of the artist. Christoph Brech just came a few times to check the motifs and to finish the artwork.