What could be better than combining a trip to the Berlin countryside – to Gamensee, for example – with an exhibition? The latest art destination we have in mind is located about an hour’s drive from Mitte at Schloss Freienwalde near the Polish border. The former country residence of Walther Rathenau, Germany’s first and so far only Jewish foreign minister, the palace now houses art that pays tribute to his life and work. Rathenau was murdered by right-wing radicals in 1922; now, in memory of the visionary thinker and self-confessed European, painter Sophie von Hellermann has created a special homage. Based on the palace’s wallpaper and furnishings which were subsequently lost, von Hellermann has used the walls of the magnificent estate directly as a canvas. In one room, a forest grows under crystal chandeliers; in the next, florets climb up to the ceiling. The spectacular intervention was initiated as a collaboration between the Jewish Country Houses Project at Oxford University and curator Ruth Ur, whose projects have appeared in public spaces across Berlin.
Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Matthias Kolb, Courtesy Sophie von Hellermann & Wentrup, Berlin; Walther-Rathenau-Stift gGmbH Bad Freienwalde
Sophie von Hellermann at Schloss Freienwalde, Rathenaustr.3, 16259 Bad Freienwalde; map
Thu–Sun, 11–17h
