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September 1999

Part two

Artists Bettina Dittlmann and Michael Jank installed a translucent, plexiglass lighting fixtures over its swimming pool facility.

Earlier this year, MF reported on jeweler Bettina Dittlmann. The acclaimed filigree brooch designer had begun making rings out of precious metal with partner Michael Jank. In their state-subsidized workshop at an unused operating room of a hospital in Nymphenburg, Jank also created works that incorporate light. After speaking with a member of the health care staff, the University of Oregon-bound artist learned that the facility’s therapeutic swimming pool resembled “a white, cold slaughterhouse.” Employing the room’s existing lighting, Jank designed a 50-square-meter Plexiglas ceiling upon which lithographic enlargements of photographs depicting a blue sky with puffy white clouds are projected. The illusion gives the bather the uncanny feeling of being outdoors. The Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Brüder immediately approved the installation, an improvement that Jank describes as “freeing the room of its cool and oppressive atmosphere.” The work can be viewed by appointment: Frau Lohr (089) 17 97 27 01.

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