Styrofoam artwork – Katharina Grosse

The internationally renowned artist Katharina Grosse has temporarily transformed the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin as well as parts of the outdoor area into an unmanageably large, colorful work of art. The boundaries between painting and sculpture are unconventionally dissolved in Katharina Grosse’s space-transcending and color-intensive artworks. Thus, in this exhibition entitled “It Wasn’t Us,” huge, rock-like elements, the floor inside and outside the museum, and parts of the façade also merge into a gigantic, three-dimensional painting in vibrant colors.

ACCENTFORM was commissioned to manufacture and assemble the oversized sculptural elements and was thus allowed to contribute to this extraordinary installation. This project presented us with a number of challenges, which we mastered in good cooperation with the client.

A Styrofoam model of the artwork, handmade by the artist in a scale of 1:50, was scanned externally and converted into 3D data. These served us as a template for 3D milling. A total of five Styrofoam objects were involved. First, a test model on a scale of 1:10 was milled using our 5- axis milling machine based on the 3D data. This model then served the artist in her studio as a
visual object for color matching and further adjustments, which were then milled by us on a scale of 1:5.

The 1:5 model was also revised again by the artist and after its approval we were able to mill the five rock-like objects in their original size. Due to the gigantic dimensions of up to 21 m in length and 7 m in height, these first had to be sensibly segmented. The milling time of 1,400 hours and the Styrofoam consumption of 1,050 m³ alone give an indication of the magnitude of this gigantic project.

After the parts were provisionally assembled, Katharina Grosse and her assistants worked on the surface with hot wire on site in our halls according to their ideas.

Art exhibition “It Wasn´t Us”

The finished segments were delivered individually to Berlin and assembled on site in the historic hall of the Hamburg train station. The assembly by our team took nine days. The artist then made further adjustments to the surface and painted over the white “icebergs” with bright colors using a spray technique and integrated them into her space-blasting installation.

We were personally able to get an impression of this extraordinary work of art at the exhibition opening and are proud to have contributed to it within the scope of our possibilities.

As this work by Katharina Grosse is also a time-limited installation, the styrofoam elements will be 100% recycled after the end of the exhibition.

Bilder aus der Fertigung:

Bilder aus der Kunstausstellung: