The university's sports centre was renovated last year and students have now given it an artistic makeover. Anyone entering the building is greeted by intricate wall drawings.
A small black line begins right next to the door, forming various motifs. A person wearing diving goggles and a swimming cap crawls past. Further back in the building, another body shimmies up to the skylights. At the end of the corridor, someone takes a shot with their leg. These sporting scenes have recently adorned the walls of the sports centre.
As part of the "Aesthetic Project" module led by Norbert Bauer, university lecturer for painting and installation, art students had the chance to develop proposals for the design of the newly renovated corridor area in the sports centre in the winter semester 19/20. The idea came from Dirk Büsch, Director of the Institute of Sport Science.
The only requirement for Bauer and his students was the content: The topic of sport was to be central to the design. "For me as a teacher and artist, it was of course appealing to have hardly any restrictions in the design," explains Bauer. The designs had to take into account the entire corridor area and the neighbouring staircase to the indoor swimming pool. According to Bauer, this was an artistic challenge: "The students had to develop something independent and take a critical look at the demanding conditions on site. This was the only way to create a work that fits in well with the overall picture."
A commission, in which the subjects of sport and art as well as the university administration were represented, selected one design from five proposals for realisation. The "One Line" design was created by a team of four students. "We had exciting discussions in the committee," says Büsch. He found the different perspectives from the fields of art and sport particularly interesting. In the end, however, the decision was clear.
The design is a work in which all the drawings are connected by a single line. "One line art is a drawing in which only one line is used to develop the image. I use this technique in courses as a drawing exercise to develop hand-eye coordination," says Bauer, explaining the background.
After the selection, students were supposed to paint the picture on the walls of the sports centre in the 2020 summer semester. However, this was not possible due to the pandemic, so the project was finally realised outside of classes in April 2021. "We first had to decide which of the drawings would go on which wall before we could start with the pencil sketches and the final design," explains Philip Kaufmann. He is studying art and media as well as philosophy and helped to implement his fellow students' design in the sports centre. In total, some of the students from the course were on site for three full days and an additional three evenings.
Now the corridor shines in new splendour. "The feedback is good, the design is appreciated by everyone here," says Büsch happily, adding: "I could imagine repeating a project like this. We still have some white walls."
