A Big Poem – STOA169

Visiting STOA169, a massive public art installation composed of 169 pillars near the Bavarian village of Polling, makes you stop and think. As you approach the structure, it looks a bit like a surreal Italian petrol station. But on entering, the grand, sensory experience begins. This is a place where many cultures have come together to inspire each other. The diversity with which they manifest themselves leaves you speechless, awestruck. The scale of it is almost impossible to take in. You find yourself overcome by a visual tsunami amid the surrounding countryside. STOA169 leaves a profound impression. The fundamental idea behind it was to bring work by artists across the world together in one place. The columns are designed by different artists, each of them supporting a roof that metaphorically represents poetic and politically enlightened solidarity. The people behind the project are the artist and free spirit Bernd Zimmer and his wife Nina Zimmer. We spoke to Bernd.

SLEEK: When did you come up with the idea for this hall and its columns?

Bernd Zimmer: The inspiration for it came from my travels over 30 years ago, on a trip to south India, where there were these huge Hindu temple complexes. They were created by everybody coming together and producing the best they could. At that time, I was thinking of involving far more artists in my project, a thousand, perhaps, because of the thousand-pillared halls [laughs]. But when I got back to Germany, I drew up an actual plan and came up with 13×13, which makes 169. I always wanted the hall to be square because the square is the most democratic and human form. All the distances are the same. I’d planned to build the hall around the turn of the Millennium, but the main thing that scuppered my plans was the financing. That’s the way things are: you have a great idea but then you have to give it up because you can’t get the money together.

S: Sounds familiar …!

BZ: It’s completely normal. I don’t really see it as a problem because I know that’s just the way it is, so I accept it. But back to the project: I had all the plans ready but then shelved the project for quite a long time, in fact. But in 2015, it came bubbling up to the surface again. So, my wife and I went back to south India for the new year and, while we were there, we decided to chance our luck and have another go at getting the whole thing off the ground. I’d always dreamed of building the hall on the plains of the river Ammer. And what followed was a chain of fortunate coincidences. This time literally everything went like clockwork. And the more things work out, the more you find yourself getting caught up in it all. In the end, you can’t get away from it anymore [laughs]. We managed to realise the project in just five years. We started building while all the lockdowns were happening, and now it’s finished.

S: So you literally used the time… 

BZ: Yes. It’s crazy really because the whole period was hugely inconvenient and disruptive for the artists. None of them could come and see us. So, we had to realise their work for them. There were some that created their artworks at home and sent them to us, though. It was crazy. We had to organise shipping and air freight for them, which really blew a hole in our budget. But it’s all done now!

S: I can’t quite imagine how you set about it. Did you have a list of artists you wanted to invite?

BZ: Yes. That’s exactly what we did. I’d actually made a list 30 years ago, but this time around we had a jury and drew up the list together. We thought about who we wanted, who was important to us. We really did start with the idea of who has made important steps for the art world.

S: So, how did you feel when the responses started coming in?

BZ: Pretty good, actually. If someone like Daniel Spoerri calls two days later, you know you must have done something right [laughs]! Banksy said he would have liked to take part but it was still too legal for him at that point.

S: How often do you actually go and see it yourself?

BZ: I often go there in the evenings in the summer. But it’s especially nice in the mornings.

S: Oh, definitely, I can only confirm that! You even find the occasional deer standing in the middle of the hall.

BZ: Absolutely right. The morning mist as it gets lighter is pretty amazing. When the hall was being built, it felt as though I was there the entire time. I was responsible for the whole thing. And yet only today, I was thinking I don’t feel any sense of ownership over it. I have a distinct emotional relationship with the project because when I stand among all these pillars, I feel like a stranger, and yet I’m one of the people who helped create it!

S: Being inside it is really powerful. I really felt challenged by my feelings, and for a moment I even felt as though I was standing in the middle of a forest.

BZ: Absolutely. I can really understand that. It’s impossible to comprehend, to grasp the full nature of what’s going on there. If you open yourself up to it, something happens to you – because conceptual art expects us to give something as well. The pillars are poetic representatives that tell us a story. It’s a thought-up moment with a message that can be incredibly difficult. There’s a poetic negotiation going on between the pillars, and whether you read up on it all beforehand to understand it better or just walk straight in – either way, you understand and listen. It’s about opening up and taking on the questions that are thrown up. 

S: I felt as though I was visiting a very intimate space, and then I noticed my own very intimate questions creeping in.

BZ: Well, with STOA169 it’s purely the artists themselves that have their say. These are personal documents of theirs, unified by the hall as a vehicle for all their thoughts and works. Opening up to an oversized ‘poem’ like that isn’t easy. That’s why we thought it important not to charge an admission fee, so that people from the town and the local area can go there too, or perhaps come across the place by chance one day.

S: On the way back from STOA169, it occurred to me that perhaps I should find out a bit more about you as well. 

BZ: Yes. Doing something like this for and with artists is quite a step. I live as an artist myself – a huge stroke of luck and a privilege. There’s a kind of gratitude on my part to be able to tell my stories. You spend your life searching, searching, and then you find an idea or mission you really believe in. I’m quite generous and just get going. You have to be able to give yourself away to others. And STOA169 now represents the idea of a world democracy that can never actually exist in that way. That’s basically the subtext of it.

As featured in SLEEK 71 – POWER.

Visit stoa169.com for more.