Idea

OVER 100 ARTISTS FROM ALL CONTINENTS DESIGN COLUMNS FOR STOA169

A hall of art in the middle of nature, supported by over 100 individually designed columns, created by internationally renowned artists from all over the world: the artist Bernd Zimmer has been pursuing this idea and its realisation for almost 30 years.

On a part of an agricultural meadow near the village of Polling, on the banks of the river Ammer, in the middle of Pfaffenwinkel, an open columned hall is being built: the STOA169. Artists from all continents were selected to design one column each, which together, as an archive of today’s art, would carry the common roof of the STOA169.

The artist Bernd Zimmer developed the idea for this project already in 1990 on a journey through South India. The impressive porticoes of the Hindu temples, where each column is individually shaped, inspired him to the idea of the STOA169. The STOA169 sets a common sign for worldwide peaceful coexistence, solidarity, international understanding and respect for nature.

Visitors can only reach the columned hall on foot. From the car park near the railway station, it takes about ten minutes to walk up the Ammer in the most beautiful surroundings along a path that can be used for agriculture to a closed river loop. There, the view to the columned hall opens up. “It is important to me that in this place the uniqueness of nature can be perceived simultaneously with art,” says Bernd Zimmer.