Proposal for the 4th Plinth Project

Title: ODENKIRCHENER STRAßE 202, RHEYDT 2012

Proposal description: An ordinary German row house suddenly stands on Trafalgar Square "overnight" and the plinth for a memorial is missing. The house is a reproduction of an ordinary old german row house, 120 years old, from the Odenkichenerstraße 202 in Mönchengladbach-Rheydt. The air-line distance between this house and the Haus u r is only 100 meters. Gregor Schneider is not only interested in this house cause of its similarity to Haus u r, so it stands but for the private abyss and the displace of historical knowledge, shaped a whole generation. Which till today and brought the world close to the abyss - it is the forgotten birthplace of Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels in Rheydt. A potemkin house, Which does not divulge its secrets earily, like a Trojan horse unopened.
This house will be put around the plinth on Trafalgar Square as at encircled shell. Outsides the house will look like it has been there since ever existing. The windows are blind by curtains, so the plinth inside is not visible, it disappears in the house. The house stays accessible by the entrance door. Inside the house has no levels, only naked walls. The visitor will stand between this walls in front of the plinth with a distanz of 70 cemtimer. Because the new surrounding of the plinth will change. The plinth becomes monumentel and frighten.

Technique: prefabricated contruction: wooden construction cased with concretefibreboards, plastered, painted, the roof made of tiles; the parts will be prefabricated and will be built together at face within one day.

Dimension of the house: LxWxH 7,8x4,8x10m

Distance to the Plinth: 0,7m

(Project description) ODENKIRCHENER STRAßE 202, RHEYDT 2012,
Trafalgar Square, London, Great Britain 2010