Patrons: Naumburger Bürgerverein e.V., Bärbel Cronau-Kretzschmar

Mediator: Frank Motz

Artist: Henrik Schrat

Duration: 2011 – 2014

Partners: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Fondation de France, Neue Auftraggeber e.V., Arbeitskreis Architekten und Ingenieure im Naumburger Bürgerverein e.V., Umweltladen e.V., Lebenshilfe e.V., Stadt Naumburg

The Architektur- und Umwelthaus Naumburg is an extracurricular place of learning on the subject of building culture and offers numerous further education courses in the field of architecture and the environment. In addition, the building is used by numerous associations. It sees itself as a place where actions "merge" into a social movement and thus generate energy. 

The Naumburger Bürgerverein e.V. is also based in the building, which was reopened in 2013 after renovation. He wants a work of art that refers to the city of Naumburg as well as the educational approach of the institution and gives the place with its various functions a common symbolic frame. In 2011, the process of brainstorming begins, accompanied by numerous rounds of discussions. The Berlin artist Henrik Schrat is invited to develop a project that refers to the annual Naumburg "Cherry Festival". It commemorates the - historically unverifiable - siege by the Hussites in 1432 and is based on a popular legend: According to the legend, a teacher and a group of children begged the Hussite commander for mercy. He heard the group and gave them cherries. Henrik Schrat takes up this story and embellishes it. He gives the old myth a new form. He designs a frieze of sheet steel that runs along the flat building in the courtyard of the building complex. The motifs are illustrations of his version of the folk tale, created in the style of silhouettes. In addition, Schrat creates the so-called "core swarm", an organic winding ceiling sculpture made of collectively gathered cherry pits, which starts in the entrance of the main building and pierces several parts of the building.