German news agency dpa ran a story about the Great Pyramid earlier this week, here in German or there in English. The headline and intro spectacularizes the potential size again, but still the piece is factually correct. Since a couple of people seemed unsure of potential legal impediments, we were particularly glad to see this bit published:
The German Association of Undertakers in Dusseldorf believes the idea is feasible. “It is a community burial ground like any other. If local authorities oversee it, then it is possible,” says the association’s general manager, Rolf Lichtner.
Oh, and the project has been part of the official German contribution to the Venice Architectural Biennale that opened just recently. More on the Biennal incl. photos from the German pavilion tomorrow.
Looking forward to presenting the Great Pyramid in Kassel tomorrow (cf. the second last post), we remembered we have been already to this sleepy town in the heartland of Germany that only awakes once every five years when the global art caravan flies in for the documenta show.
Back in July 2007 arch+ invited us to introduce the Great Pyramid at their documenta 12 mini-marathon. It´s somewhat funny to see the video now. Unlike today, we weren´t absolutely sure yet how this thing would really work .. But in any case this wasn´t meant to be a business presentation but a reflection on what can be thought and done, what opportunities actually exist to re-think things radically..
Ingo Niermann, clumsy and smart as usual, talking to Hans Ulrich Obrist and Rem Koolhaas.
Pages from arch+ 186/187
Click the images to see the video or read the transcription from the most recent arch+ issue. Apologies to our readers who prefer English - it´s all in German.
The Great Pyramid made it into the BBC World Service TV news. With due hesitation the BBC notes the fact that nothing is being built yet but luckily avoided the „German pyramid“ punch unlike in last September´s radio coverage. We´re making some headway it seems..
Here´s the article and there the video we´ve sacrificially shot Monday morning on this wind-swept field near Streetz where Tristana, the BBC Berlin correspondent, managed to find the by far saddest looking view of the small town for her moderation.
The Great Pyramid also made it on the frontpages of Dutch daily De Pers and Polish DZIENNIK, was featured in German major national daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung (not online), was on 3sat Kulturzeit once more and has been covered by German national public radio Deutschlandfunk (listen or download). Thinking of all the image requests from print media we´ve replied to, we guess there´ll be a bit more out very soon..
