The art project “Utopia Triathlon” by Emanuel Mooner invites visitors to explore the history of the Zenith site in Freimann and the locomotive factory there during the two world wars. At the beginning of the First World War, Krupp’s Bayerische Geschützwerke Freimann, Munich’s largest armaments factory, was established on the site. In 1918, Kurt Eisner called on the workers at the factory to go on strike to end the war. At the end of the war, under the terms of the Versailles Treaty of 1919, the factory had to be dismantled and in 1925 the site was acquired by the Deutsche Reichsbahn to build the Reichsbahn-Ausbesserungswerk München-Freimann (Reichsbahn repair works Munich-Freimann). The repair works were closed in 1995 and the large industrial hall 24 has been dormant ever since.
On a tour through the old industrial hall, which visitors to this walk-in sculpture must largely discover for themselves, they find places that the artist has manipulated, alienated and reassembled. There are a total of 40 rooms to explore, ten of which are used. History can be experienced – with all the senses. It smells of dust and oil, you can hear the dripping of leaky pipes, you can still feel the heat, you can imagine the production and working conditions in the war economy.
At sunset, there is a point at which the light bursts into the production hall, transforming it into a cathedral of steel. The atmosphere becomes mystical and contemplative, enhanced by the walk-in installation of billowing fog, neon and tapeloops.
Emanuel Mooner, born in Munich in 1972, lives and works in Munich.
