Verlag Walthe Herb - Buchhandlung Walther König

Ω „Ich verfalle im Moment zurück in die
,Kindheit des Gestaltens‘ – in eine Art
Dilettantismus des Herumprobierens …
Bei dem Buchprojekt geht’s mehrspurig
zu … die Konstruktion / der Zusammenbau
der Architektur ist das Zentrale an
diesem Monstrum. Es repräsentiert die
Schönheit / Offenheit aller Baustellen,
bevor sie – zu 90% – durch Fertigstellung
langweilig werden … Die vielleicht 10%
über dieses Zusammenbauen hinaus
machen allerdings die Stimmung in
diesem Parkhaus aus … Alla … Polizei! ...
was machen Sie denn hier? … Zeigen Sie
mal ihre Ausweise! Eine Spur – hinein in
diese Architektur – ist der Siebdruck, sind
die Bilder, die wie eingefärbter Beton …
in dieser ,Masse Stadt Köln‘ liegen … eine
andere, sehr wichtige, sind die kleinen
Doku-Heftchen von Harald Pridgar, 4I
dokumentieren … dazu kommen
Autochen, ausgeschnittene Werbeschnipsel
– and whatever.“
(Thomas Bayrle)
32 herbst / fall 2009
Parkhaus Köln is a truly three-dimensional book, fi nished with beech inlay, silvery grey
card and birch plywood. It is made up of eight pages: two covers and two 7 cm thick
‘leaves’. The doubled-sided pages, attached to the 25 cm wide spine with an aluminium
hinge, are made up of ‘loopings’—curving, bending roads, with a faded out broken
white line. All the pages have Cologne motifs silk-screened on them. More than 430
slots in the streets and a further cut-out pattern, which guarantee stability with the
help of wooden brackets, give the book a mysterious, Piranesi-esque shape, similar to
that of a multi-storey car-park. There are coloured cars on the roads or parked up. In
four of the parking bays there are books, mostly leporellos, that are attached to the
book, but which can be ‘backed-out’ by the reader. The books present the entire process
of the installation of the exhibition 40 Jahre Looping in Museum Ludwig, Cologne in
2008, the numerous drafts and models for the production of the book, written pieces by
the artists, Cologne souvenirs, etc.
Each copy is unique—every page has been worked with in a different way by Thomas
Bayrle, using watercolours and collages. The book is protected by a wooden slipcase
with recessed grips.
Bayrle’s long lasting interest in and experimentation with patterns and modules,
building blocks, which he constantly repeats, reaches new heights in the threedimensionality
of Parkhaus Köln. The streets form a hybrid between architecture and
machine, a ‘monster’, as Thomas Bayrle himself calls it.
verlag der buchhandlung walther könig, köln