The Weimarhallenpark - a place of recreation, inspiration, art and culture - as a landscape and cultural monument mediator of history and place of living present. The artist Konstantin Bayer is interested in the dialogue between man and nature as well as in historical and current social upheavals. Both areas of interest find a catalyst in the examination of this place. The gallery EIGENHEIM, whose artistic director is Konstantin Bayer, was founded in Weimar in 2006 and has found its new home in the gardener's house of the Weimarhallenpark since 2016. Due to the construction of the new Bauhaus Museum, by architect Heike Hanada, in the direct vicinity of EIGENHEIM Weimar, the Weimarhallenpark, which was first mentioned in documents as a ducal tree garden in the 15th century, has experienced a new orientation. The history of the park allows us to trace the history of the last centuries, prosperous as well as harrowing social conditions, be it the Weimar Classicism, the "Third Reich" or the Soviet occupation. In the last months Konstantin Bayer researched the history of the Weimarhallenpark in the city archives, lectured with various historians from the city museum, the Klassik Stiftung, contacted the city and state archives, the French National Library, the Archaeological State Museum, spoke with Mr. Bleicher, the former head of the parks department about his memories of the park, collected files, documents, pictures & maps - this research is the basis for the exhibition shown here.

Historical maps are graphically reworked as tapestries and tell of the many developmental steps leading up to the current image of the park. Sculptures that are no longer in the park experience a contemporary reissue through 3D prints in conjunction with historical illustrations, atmospheric video works show the everyday life of park visitors as well as the change of day and seasons through the reflection of the park pond surface, excerpts from files of the Weimar City Archives and a newly developed collection of postcards document fragments of 600 years of park history and tell of personalities such as the entrepreneur Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747-1822) or the city planner August Lehrmann (1878-1945). A central work of the exhibition is the original bronze of a life-size jumping foal by Wolfgang Rommel (1939 1995). This stood in front of the gardener's house between 1984 and 1995 and has anchored itself deeply in the collective memory of many citizens and visitors of the city of Weimar, but after damage, in a magazine of the Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments fell into oblivion and has now been brought back into consciousness by Konstantin Bayer in the form of a sculptural intervention. The exhibition fits as a hybrid into the artistic and curatorial oeuvre of Konstantin Bayer. It shows Bayer as a precise observer, curious zeitgeist & communicator between the different disciplines of research, mediation and reception.

With this exhibition, Konstantin Bayer raises awareness of the history inscribed in the urban landscape, of the environment in which we live, of the beauty of nature, and of gardens and parks as a total work of art.