GFZK2

This naked building is the new annexe of the Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst (Gallery of Contemporary Art), or GFZK for short, which was founded in 1990 on the initiative of a West German industrialist. It is not naked for budgetary reasons, but as a matter of principle. Barbara Steiner, the director of the GFZK, sees the structure as a built manifesto of her critique of traditional museums. Instead of grand gestures that make the viewer shrink to the size of a tiny tot, this building is not meant to overwhelm but to bring art down from the spheres of high culture to eye level. The name of the enemy is 'white cube', as the new building does not contain the dreaded rectangular white rooms. Its irregular shape is the result of an amazing system of sliding partitions. Sections of wall up to eight metres long can be shifted by hand, creating ever-new sequences. The effect is so dramatic that the only regret one has is that visitors are not allowed to move the walls themselves.