A blue beer carrier, but instead of bottles, it contains nothing but golden spray cans. A small wooden plate on top – and you have a side table that says more about this special place than a thousand words. It’s about art, about creativity, but also about encounters, or the symbiosis of both. “Real Experience New Art”, “Rena” for short, is the name of the project or collective, because the three makers want to offer “inspiring experiences with contemporary art”. The goal is to get them out of the ivory tower of chic galleries and make them approachable.
And what better place to do that than at a former Lost Place? In a place where decay lets its very own creativity flourish? Where shattered discs form amazing patterns. Where rampant green devours the remains of civilization. Where the legacies of former residents offer material without end. Where practically everything is allowed?
The magic of a lost place: Decay also offers creativity and aesthetics.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
The former Gerstmayer nursery in Markt Schwaben stood empty for five years, but now there is life again – and what a life it is. “Art happens here!” says Rebecca Winhart. The young artist “Rena” brought this to life together with two friends. The three of them enthusiastically talk about their successes and ideas, about street art, exhibitions, photo shoots on a small square in front of the former shop. In the middle: the spray can table.
The area includes an old residential building and a sales room. Its counter now serves as a bar. The walls are painted, there are posters in the shop windows, and the tiled surfaces, on which all sorts of tubs of cut flowers used to stand, offer plenty of seating. In this way, the vaulted room becomes the focus of creative exchange. Some of the walls in the house are also painted directly, and you can find funny signs and creatively designed interiors everywhere.
The nursery also includes a number of greenhouses, which nature is slowly reclaiming. It’s sprouting everywhere between the concrete, you can see thistles and dandelions, interspersed with ivy again and again, but entire trees have also shot up over the years. No wonder that this Lost Place is a coveted location for photo shoots. During the tour, the three young tenants also make a fruity discovery: peaches hang in a lush green crown, velvety and fragrant.
Rebecca Winhart, Elena Tengelmann and Natalie Ecker (from left) with the harvested peaches, behind them supporter Sidi Pereda.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
With the exception of one, the glass buildings are so dilapidated that they cannot be used for public events. The obligatory cobwebs are the smallest problem. Shards of broken glass and rusty iron can be seen everywhere, and many of the structures seem anything but stable. In addition, the greenhouses are contaminated with asbestos. “It’s in the glue between the windows, in all these panels and probably even in the floor,” explains Winhart. For this reason, the owners of the area have so far not been able to find a tenant or buyer.
Luckily, one would like to say, because the owners not only immediately agreed to an interim use as an art area, no, they even made the former garden center available to the new collective free of charge. “We’ll probably still be able to be here in 2023,” Winhart says happily. “That’s so generous!”
The heart of Rena are three art-loving women: Rebecca Winhart, 31 years old and painter, Natalie Ecker, also 31 and cultural scientist, and Elena Tengelmann, 29, interior designer. A whole team of creative people has formed around them, who help and enrich the former garden center with their work. One of them is Daniel Westermeier, better known as Mr. Woodland. The urban artist from Erding serves as a flagship for the new creative area, so to speak: he lends the project glamor with his name and an enchanting face with the spray can.
Graffiti artist Mr. Woodland in front of his work entitled “Adam and Eve, the Fall”.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Many of the facades have been sprayed, for example the Munich collective The Blue Bird has already immortalized themselves, and new pictures are added all the time. Next, two artists from the signalman Thiel have announced themselves. But not only outdoors, but also inside the nursery, the art gets a lot of space: Both the greenhouse directly on the street and the former residential building serve as exhibition areas.
One of the greenhouses is intact and can be used as a gallery.
(Photo: organizer)
The Rena organizers are still very enthusiastic about the opening weekend in May, when 14 artists showed their works. Around 800 guests were welcomed over the two days, many young people, but also those with walkers, says Tengelmann. And the feedback was fantastic, especially the efforts to have direct discussions between visitors and creative people proved to be very profitable – for both sides and also in a very literal sense. A number of works had changed hands. And that’s exactly what the makers are after: to encourage people to hang an individual, unique piece over their sofa instead of “any 0815 palm tree pictures”.
The Munich painter Nico Erminold, who created this painting, has already exhibited in the old garden center.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
Rena doesn’t really have to do any advertising in Markt Schwaben: “Graffiti attracts people,” says Ecker – and a little later three interested young people are in front of the door. They would like to look around and maybe even contribute later, together with their very dedicated art teacher. Unfortunately, Rena is a bit slowed down at the moment: Public events are currently not possible. The authorities got involved, the creative people need a permit for the special use of the area, including a fire protection concept. However, there are no construction plans from the nursery, so it takes a lot of effort to provide the necessary documents. “If we didn’t have so many supporters, we couldn’t do it at all, not even financially,” says Tengelmann.
But the trio takes it easy – and emphasizes the advantages of the bureaucratic correction: With the approval, one is legally on the safe side in the future, and it is also good to be familiar with this aspect of temporary use. Rena is not only limited to the Markt Schwabener Gärtnerei, but would also like to fill other empty buildings in the region with art in the near future.
The back of the site is also worth a visit, showing the third tall woman.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
But first of all, the three women are now waiting for the green light for the garden center from the district office. “We are fully motivated to start again here,” says Ecker. Since there are now many female figures emblazoned on the facades, the idea of an exhibition with a feminist touch came up, at the latest for the next International Women’s Day. But it doesn’t matter when, it’s already certain that the unconventional side table will then be given all the honors again.