Playground for meditation and contemplation (Meditativer Spielplatz  ©) was the name of our team’s submission for the ‘StadtLand:Kirche, Querdenker in Thüringen 2017’ project. It was chosen from amongst 500 entries on how to tackle the issue of vacant, unused churches. The team of Kata Adamek, Christian Poeck and Michael Jaeger developed the concept of an oasis of calm where one can rest, meditate or simply relax in the swing.
The modular installation was set up in a small church in Thuringia in 2019. As part of the installation, Kata created two interactive cubes, one lined in felted, hand-sewn sheep’s wool panels featuring backlighting as well as paper and other elements made of walnut, oak, maple, plum and wild cherry wood; the second cube functions as a swing suspended from the frame above. One of the key considerations for the artist was the use of sustainable materials in the installation. For that reason, very little plastic was used, the hand-carved wooden elements and felted wool panel were created by the artist herself and the spliced rope was sourced locally. The materials can be experienced with all your senses: you can play on the wooden elements as well as touch and smell the beeswax plate.