BAUBAU: Ein Spielort für Kinder

In the organizer's words:

Play, laugh, be loud, romp around, do nothing - and all this in an exhibition building! With BAUBAU, artist Kerstin Brätsch has created a free play area for children where more is allowed than forbidden. Colorful wallpaper, structures, objects and a series of "loose parts" (loose materials) form spaces on the first floor of the Gropius Bau that do not set any fixed guidelines, but are determined by the children's activities. They set the direction and shape for what happens here. BAUBAU started as a pilot project at the beginning of September 2024 and continues to develop.

The game

All children have the urge to play. This is how they learn to understand themselves and the world. Open, self-determined play is particularly important for emotional and social development. The educational concept for BAUBAU is therefore based on the principles of free play: here there is time, space and permission for children to follow their own needs and interests. They are accompanied by playworkers - trained staff who create a safe and supportive environment in which children can play freely.

The art

Following the example of The Model - an adventure playground by artist and activist Palle Nielsen and journalist and activist Gunilla Lundahl, which was shown at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1968 - the rules that usually apply in art venues are suspended here: Children are invited to spread out and have fun.

BAUBAU thus playfully questions what a museum or art institution should be. The comprehensive interior design that Kerstin Brätsch has developed is full of references and suggestions: Elements from her earlier works, such as marbling, paintings or stucco marble work, reappear here in altered form and materiality. The wallpaper, curtains, fabrics and seating furniture are inhabited by dinosaurs, fantastic creatures, termite mounds and abstract elements. With their comical, amusing, perhaps even somewhat eerie shapes, they create an open framework for free play.

Kerstin Brätsch's practice is designed to allow and absorb influences from outside. While she has previously worked with artists or craftspeople, she now does so in a completely different way with children: she invites the children to transform and develop the space in unpredictable ways according to their own ideas and visions and without the intervention of the artist.

Curated by Jenny Schlenzka, Director, Patrizia Dander, Deputy Curatorial Director, and Sonja Borstner, Assistant Curator