Small-scale and low-threshold: In 1972, art objects were also shown on the play street around the Olympic Lake.
(Photo: Fritz Neuwirth)
“The Roofs” is spectacular. International stars of the music scene come to Munich such as Moop Mama, Gayle, Alphaville and Ry X. Admission is free, as are the sprayer events, street dance battles and other cultural offerings of the festival. Until August 21st it will be part of the “European Championships Munich 2022”, the biggest sporting event that Munich has seen in 50 years. This is how it is advertised.
But can “The Roofs” be compared to the cultural program of its role model from 1972? The name itself alludes to one of the most noted cultural achievements at the 1972 Olympics – the architecture of the roof by Günter Behnisch and Frei Otto. At their foot, throughout the Olympic Park and at other locations in the city are the Roofs stages. Small-scale, always true to its own goal of “more village character than gigantism”. Low-threshold, so definitely in line with the 1972 Olympic Games and its legendary “playing street” around the Olympic Lake.
Nevertheless, the cultural program in 1972 was fundamentally different. The combination of sport, art and design (formed by Otl Aicher) was crucial when Munich applied to be the venue. The aim was to create a living synthesis of the arts. And for that they wanted and dared to shake things up, provoke them.
“The monumental form of the games sucks.”
“Der Spiegel” quoted these ambitions smugly at the time: The Olympic Organizing Committee (OC) “also made provisions for those disappointed Games visitors in Munich who could be frustrated by ‘their role as anonymous, passive participants’ (OC). to escape from sheer sport to a field of art that activates ‘reason and sensitivity in equal measure'”. The Hamburger Blatt quotes the Essen architect Werner Ruhnau, who was entrusted with the play street, with the “distinctive principle” to which he pays homage: “The monumental form of the games sucks.” Which is why Ruhnau wanted to develop “a total counter-concept to the monumental theater in the stadiums”.
Even the printed program of the Kultur-Spiele in 1972 was good enough to cause excitement. It had swelled to almost 150 pages, so the prospectus was being offered at 4.50 marks. The Olympic Committee put the costs for all of its culture at 15 million marks. At that time, many people considered both sums to be unrestrained and excessive, since the Wiesn beer was still available for 1.35 marks. Before the start of the games, the daily newspapers reported extensively, almost maliciously, how sluggish ticket sales had been “even for the Vienna Philharmonic” or the “Vita Bavarica” series in the congress hall. Little was written about how moving the performance of an ancient tragedy was in the midst of the Allerheiligenhofkirche, still lying in the ruins of the Second World War – Munich showed its wound in the Beuysian sense.
At the end of the day, the cultural department was happy to welcome more than 650,000 visitors to the cultural program, which included the opera festival as well as commissioned compositions and lots of visual arts. In addition, 1.2 million visitors had already visited the street when the organizers ended the official art program after the assassination attempt on Israeli athletes on September 5, 1972.
Paolo Nestler built over the terrace of the Haus der Kunst like a conservatory.
(Photo: TUM Architecture Museum)
What resonates to this day is the exhibition “World Cultures and Modern Art” in the Haus der Kunst, which has undergone a massive architectural redesign. In art history, the exhibition is considered a pioneering act, one of the first steps away from a Eurocentric understanding of art. The actual Exhibition “Olympic City of Munich” in the Pinakothek der Moderne, created by the Architekturmuseum der TU München, bears witness to this (until January 8, 2023). Architect Paolo Nestler had created an extension for the Haus der Kunst that completely transformed it as seen from the English Garden. Nestler, President of the Academy of Fine Arts immediately before and during the student riots from 1965 to 1969, placed the extension over the terrace of the Haus der Kunst like a winter garden.
The construction made of glass, metal and Eternit plates immediately reminded the older residents of Munich of the “Glass Palace” at the Old Botanical Garden. It burned down in 1931 and had previously – cosmopolitanly – housed important international art exhibitions. The National Socialists stopped the plans for its reconstruction in 1933 and instead built the “House of German Art” in the larger park.
The light-flooded extension to the Haus der Kunst reminded older Munich residents of the glass palace that stood in the old botanical garden until 1931.
(Photo: TUM Architecture Museum)
More than 2700 objects found space under Nestler’s temporary roof. “World Cultures and Modern Art” pursued the declared goal of questioning the “supremacy of Western Christian culture” that had been valid until then. Classic modernism, for example by Paul Klee and Oskar Kokoschka, was presented alongside artefacts from the cultures of all continents, from Egypt to the Orient, Asia to Indo-America. In addition, a “sound center” was set up, where not only Yehudi Menhuin and Ravi Shankar played an “improvisation on Indian ragas”. Mauricio Kagel’s “Exotica for extraordinary instruments” was also premiered with the instrument department of the city museum. A tongue-in-cheek composition in which six professionals struggled with instruments that were unfamiliar to them. Even then, a passionate discussion broke out about what white musicians were allowed to do.
Another current exhibition in Munich provides information about details of the show, the title of which is: “Visions and Reality – Art for the Olympic Games in Munich 1972”. It can be seen in the Rathausgalerie until September 11th. She refers to many additional fields of action of the cultural program of 1972, also to the competitions for the realization of works of art at the park entrances and for the Olympic Village. The list of those who were invited “reads like a Who’s Who of the art of the time,” writes curator Elisabeth Hartung. It ranges from Jean Tinguely and Klaus Rinke to Hans Hollein and David Hamilton. The American avant-garde was to be commissioned directly for works in the park: Dan Flavin and Frank Stella were among them, as was Andy Warhol. In the end, however, Gerhard Richter took his place. He contributed a draft for the design of the back wall in the Olympic swimming pool. In fact, little of these designs was realized. And much of what was implemented is now in poor condition, forgotten or torn down, as “Vision and Reality” also refers to.
Even if the cultural program ended after the devastating attack on the Israeli athletes. After long discussions, the artist Otto Piene and some colleagues sent a positive signal at the very end: During the closing ceremony of the games, they staged a sign of connection and hope and stretched five interconnected hoses filled with helium over the Olympic Lake. In the colors of the rainbow.
For its part, the Roofs program of the European Championships today may be dazzling. But it is hardly to be expected that more will remain than the memories of a few beautiful summer evenings. And that’s probably a good thing, in some ways.