Helmholtz Center for Infection Research - W

With the bright and spacious canteen in the new administration building on the campus of the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI), a place has been created where science and administration can find space for informal exchange. Samuelis Baumgarte Art Consulting was commissioned to enliven this space through artistic interventions and at the same time to create a relaxing atmosphere. It was also important to the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research to give visitors a first glimpse of the centre's fields of activity through art.

As a first step, Samuelis Baumgarte Art Consulting organized an artist competition, to which nationally established artists were invited who, based on the planning documents and detailed briefing, created first draft sketches for possible commissioned work. After the presentation, the competition jury finally decided to commission the artist Kurt Laurenz Theinert with a detailed draft and then with its realization.

The central area in the new building forms the basis of the selected artistic design measure: the glass wall in front of the canteen. The designed motif was applied over the entire surface of the glass pane by means of foil lamination. The translucency of the material allows the viewer to continue to see people and objects through the glass wall. Nevertheless, it offers enough privacy to give visitors to the canteen the feeling of a closed area.

The motif is made up of different image levels that deal with the fields of activity of the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research. For this purpose, the artist abstracted microscopic images of bacteria, photographs of a laboratory and chemical formulas and combined them in an exciting composition. Due to the different sizes of the individual motifs, depending on the distance between the viewer and the glass wall, one of the levels comes to the fore - this creates a lively process of rapprochement between the viewer and the work of art. While the colored, abstract bacteria still form the dominant elements in the distance when entering the building, the closer you get to the work, they seem to slowly dissolve with the graphic escape. The graphic element is chosen in such a way that it is centered on the door area and thus at the same time offers an orientation aid. When you approach the door, the focus is ultimately on the details: the chemical formulas become visible.

For a stringent continuation of the artistic design, slightly reduced variants of the motif can also be found on the serving counter in the canteen. These, too, were applied over the entire surface of the elements by means of foil lamination in order to create a smooth, easy-to-clean surface that meets the hygienic requirements in the area of ​​serving food.