Greenhouse

With Dan Peterman’s installation “Extended Falster Video / Greenhouse” a “Nonsite” in the sense of Robert Smithson is created in the foyer of the library of the University of Lüneburg. a park on the Danish island of Falster will be referenced, which will serve as a field of experimentation for a group of artists (Bittermann & Duka, Mark Dion, Anna Gudjónsdóttir, Florian Hüttner, Till Krause, Dan Peterman) in the project “Falster Versuchsgelände” of the Hamburg “Galerie für Landschaftskunst” for the next few years and from which Dan Peterman’s “Falster Video/Greenhouse” has begun its journey. A connection is also made to the nomadic greenhouse installed on the campus of the University of Lüneburg since October 1999 at the suggestion of Dan Peterman. I, which metaphorically refers to what is in all probability the most serious ecological problem of the 21st century in terms of its social implications - the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. The project “Greenhouse” at the University of Lüneburg, which is integrated into the interdisciplinary project ” Agenda 2l - University of Lüneburg” funded by the German Federal Foundation for the Environment, follows on from the community project of the Chicago “Blackstone - building” (61st Street), in which Peterman has been involved for years, but extends it by the feature of mobility.

On the day of the opening of Greenhouse.2, the installation by Dan Peterman placed in the foyer of the library of the University of Lüneburg will be enriched by a work by Nils Norman (New York). Norman describes the mobile unit, which will be driven by Till Krause from the “Galerie für Landschaftskunst” in Hamburg to the two greenhouses at the University of Lüneburg on l. 19 and on to the Kunstverein Braunschweig the next day, as follows: “‘The Gerrard Winstanley Radical Gardening Space Reclamation Mobile Field Center and Weather Station Prototype (European Chapter)’ is a specially designed bicycle tailer that when in transit is a compact, weatherproof, lockable unit, roadworthy and user-friendly. It has been designed to travel between community gardens / allotments, town fairs, protest camps, and schools, where it is opened up and made ready for action. When stationary the bike trailer opened up reveals a small xerox machine, a library of books available for xeroxing, a weather station and a small working desk. On top is a solar panel which collects solar energy whenever the sun is out. The library consists of a unigue collection of books, some quite rare, on experimental urban gardening / farming, horticulture, weather, D. l. Y. (Do it yourself) culture, alternative city design and city gentrification.”

In his lecture on 19.1.00 at 20h Nils Norman will present his proposals for the greening of institutions formulated in the past (e.G. Generali Foundation, Vienna).

Sponsored by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt. The company Palmen, Heinsberg provided the greenhouse. Nils Norman, “The Gerrard Winstanley Radical Gardening Space Reclamation Mobile Field Center and Weather Station Prototype (European Chapter)” in cooperation with the Galerie für Landschaftskunst, Hamburg.

Publication: Beatrice von Bismarck, Diethelm Stoller, Ulf Wuggenig: Art, Ecology and Sustainable Development. In: Gerd Michelsen (ed.) Sustainable University - Auf dem Wege zu einem universitären Agendaprozess. Frankfurt/Main 2000 (VAS). Series Innovations in Universities Sustainable Development; Vol. 1.