Project description for the memorial competition for deserters and pacifists, Cologne

Title: PARAGRAPH

"The section sign is a typographical character used mainly to refer to a particular section of a document, such as a legal code" - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. The section conduces to the classification.

The origin of the sign is controversial. One theory is about the sign is a double-S, standing for the abbreviation "signum sectionis" (lat. sign of the chapter). So the section sign is a interleaved looped "SS". Paragraph No. 57, German military law code of 1934, earmarks the sentence of death for deserters generally. The paragraph, a sign of classification, divides humans in the form of paragraph 57 into liveable and non liveable persons as measured by the criterion for "convenience for nation and fatherland".

The sculpture "Paragraph" is a three-dimensional, walkable roomsculpture. The estimated outside dimension is length x height x width 780x400x250cm. The sculpture will be made of brass, positioned on a basement by customers. The "Paragraph" is walkable by an entrance/exit (A and B, 250x80cm) at the beginning and the end of the sign (openings, no doors).
The sculpture is roofed totally and absolutly opaque inside. It creates a homogeneous and sculptural impression. The visitor is able to enter the sculpture by two entrances alternatively and can move into the darkness by following the paragraph form. In the center of the paragraph there is the "courtyard" of the section sign, also roofed and opaque, with a n interior height of 220cm. The prison cell-like courtyard is walk-/leaveable by two gangways (openings, no doors) (C and D). The very spatial extension and making the paragraph accessible creates a inscrutable, confusing and scary room, but the paragraph is only recognizable as such out of the bird's eye view. The visitor is abandoned inside (lat. deserere). He is faced with two possible entrances, not knowing if he will ever find out the darkness, which exit he will reach or if he will walk around in circels arriving at what he wanted to leave behind. In the end both ways emerge as blind alleys.

More info: http://www.museenkoeln.de/NS-DOKUMENTATIONSZENTRUM/pages/1899.aspx?s=1899