HERBCHRONOLOGY
Oranienplatz # 1-47
2019 © Stine Gonsholt
Frottage
Graphite on paper 100 g, 9 x 9 cm
Herbchronology is used as a tool to estimate plant age. Variations in the width of annual rings reflect the influence of climatic factors that limit the biological processes governing ring formation within a tree. Study of reconstructions of long records of a variety of climatic and related variables, such as temperature, precipitation, stream runoff and barometric pressure over periods suggests that the climate of the past century or so is not representative of the conditions that have frequently prevailed over long periods.
The work HERBCHRONOLOGY - Oranienplatz, is based on the the history of this sqare and Linden trees planted there, in my neighborhood in Kreuzberg, Berlin.
Oranienplatz was laid out in 1841-1852, based on designs by Peter Joseph Lenné and was divided into two by the construction of the historical Luisenstadt Canal. After the March Revolution of 1848, the Luisenstadt Canal was created between the Spree and Landwehr Canal as a job creation measure, but it was hardly a flowing body ofwater. So the magistrate decided to fill the stagnant and stinking water with the excavated earth of the subway construction site. Between the bank walls, the canal park was built in 1926–1928 according to plans by Erwin Barth.
Over the century Oranienplatz has been redesigned several times. The urban development goals of the 1950s and 60s in the western part of Berlin were designed to negate the historical urban structures. An elevated city motorway was planned on the Kreuzberg section in the 1950s, with access and exit ramps. But finally in 1991, the entire canal was replanted with its formerly framing rows of Lenné trees to protect the facility, as a monument and green space, from being converted into a traffic route. The last redesign was completed in 2007. The renovation was intended to bring the original shape and division of the square to life again. The public and pedestrian areas have been enlarged and plantings added or renewed.
Between 2012 and 2014 there was an unauthorized protest camp on Oranienplatz by refugees. And today, Oranienplatz is often the starting point or destination of political demonstrations.
Installation View: Telemark Art Center (NO), 2019
Installation View: Telemark Art Center (NO), 2019
HERBCHRONOLOGY, Oranienplatz #1-47
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