The artist column hall “Stoa 169” on the Ammer near Polling was opened on Sunday with brass music, political celebrities and 200 invited guests.
From Tuesday the worldwide unique foyer will be freely accessible.
The "Stoa 169" at the Ammer near Polling was officially opened on Sunday
The artist columned hall was one of the most controversial building projects in the region
Due to the corona, only invited guests could take part in the celebration
Polling - Actually it should have been a celebration without admission control, a celebration for everyone - as it would be for an art project that unites people.
But the pandemic thwarted this plan of the “Stoa 169 Foundation”.
The crowd of guests at the opening of the first construction phase of the columned hall on yesterday, Sunday, had to be limited to 200.
"Next year we will, hopefully without Corona, celebrate the whole plant", promised client Bernd Zimmer at his welcome - "right with a beer tent and a thousand people ..."
Next year should be celebrated again - very big
At least a smaller tent, set up by the Pollinger Trachtenverein, was ready yesterday at noon.
It offered shady spots in the late summer sun, which shone in competition with the “Stoa” and its initiator.
Visibly moved, Bernd Zimmer briefly explained the intention of the columned hall (to bring artists from all continents under one roof) and thanked all those involved, supporters and especially his wife Nina.
The 71-year-old judged the result, for which he had fought for years and which has now been built for eleven months: “I think it was very successful.
It's a very open hall. "
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The “Sound of Stoa 169” was played by the Weilheim composer Joscha Arnold with cellist Lenz Defregger and violinist Moritz Defregger.
Behind it the Pollinger brass music, which then played in Bavarian style.
© Gronau
The other speakers found much more exuberant words.
As deputy chairwoman of the foundation's board of trustees, Polling's former mayor Felicitas Betz led through the appropriately festive, relaxed and by no means pompous inauguration ceremony, which was framed by the Polling Music Association with Bavarian brass music.
"When I stand here, I am happy - although my life was also shaken up by this work of art," said Betz, referring to the lost mayoral election in March.
When Zimmer enthusiastically told her about his Stoa plans in the town hall in the summer of 2016, it was “goose bumps”.
Together they have "cleared all bureaucratic obstacles out of the way," the ex-mayor continued: "Art needs space, art needs courage, art needs perseverance - and above all, art needs people like you, dear Bernd."
My great wish was to bring all continents under one roof.
This has great symbolic power - an image of globalization that has a positive connotation.
Client Bernd Zimmer
District Administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiß praised the “Stoa 169” as “a unique work of art that bears Bernd Zimmer's signature, but is designed and practically worn by artists from all over the world and from three generations”.
Embedded in nature on the Ammer, this has found the right setting.
The critical voices in the run-up (“the mood was often so heated that we feared that polling would be a second Feldafing”) were mostly “not directed against the artwork, but purely against the approval process”, says Jochner-Weiß im Review.
Now she hopes “that the Stoa will reunite supporters and critics”.
“I can only say: connect!”, Polling's new mayor Martin Pape also wished: The globally unique artist columnar hall is “a visible sign of respect for man and nature” - and “from now on an integral part of our community”.
Would it still be possible today to build a Wieskirche?
Would it still be possible today to build a Wieskirche or a Walhalla?
These thoughts came to him about the prehistory of the “Stoa 169”, said Bavaria's Art Minister Bernd Sibler in his address - and praised the columned hall, which the Free State is funding with 870,000 euros from the Kulturfonds, as “incredibly successful”.
The supporters around Zimmer had been infected by the vision of "building the next Wieskirche, the next Walhalla".
And such visions “we need more than anything in these times”, says Sibler with a view to the corona crisis: The “Stoa” is “a very important symbol that art and culture are back and will come back even further”.
Prominent artists have come to the opening
Incidentally, over 20 of the participating artists from all over the world came to yesterday's opening ceremony in person, including celebrities such as the Icelander Sigrún Ólafsdóttir, the Austrian Wolfgang Flatz and the installation artist Georges Adéagbo from Benin.
"Together we are strong", across all borders, that is the timeless message of the "Stoa 169", said Wolfgang Heubisch, Vice President of the Bavarian State Parliament, in his welcoming address.
He asked rhetorically whether in the Pfaffenwinkel, this wonderful cultural landscape, everything wasn't already there.
But “every generation that is strong” wants and has to create something new, Heubisch himself gave the answer: “The Stoa 169 is something new, but nothing contemporary.
It will stand the test of time.
(...) It will be a temple of culture in the truest sense of the word. "
It is deeply impressive how this Stoa 169 fits into the landscape - and with a little patina it will fit in even more.
Bavaria's Art Minister Bernd Sibler
The philosophy behind the “Stoa 169” - which is “about much more than colors and shapes” - was finally explained by the writer Tilman Spengler in his celebratory speech that was as clever as it was witty.
"Stoa" describes on the one hand an ancient school of philosophy and on the other hand the building type of the pillared hall.
The former is one of the cradles of European civilization when it comes to values such as humanity, openness and solidarity.
“We should keep that,” said the 73-year-old, “and this monument is an occasion for that too”.
But Spengler praised not only the messages, but also “the beauty and the wit of this hall”.
It is a "walkable and not inaccessible world atlas".
The "Stoa" can only be reached on foot or by bike
This can be viewed free of charge by everyone from tomorrow, Tuesday, around the clock.
The “Stoa 169” can of course only be reached on foot or by bike. A parking lot for around 30 cars is to be built in the next few months behind the level crossing west of Pollingen Bahnhofstrasse.
The foyer itself is not quite finished either.
So far there are 81 pillars under the roof, and another 40 will follow by summer 2021 - reason enough to have another big party.
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