To be honest at first sight the whole Stingel thing didn’t seem very spectacular to me. But right after I found out what Rudolf Stingel’s carpet and the chandelier were meant to be, I took real pleasure in it!

Stingel himself is the proud owner of an old, Indian agra carpet. One of those that were popular in the saloons of the 19th and early 2oth century. This kind of carpet decorated with all its ornaments was paragon of candor and expression of a touch of wanderlust for the exotic or simply the different.

But right then the Bauhaus modernity put a sudden end to any shape of ornament. The Neue Nationalgalerie planned by Mies van der Rohe was built in the 60s. The whole building in its clear and artless design sums up what the European modernity demanded…

Now Stingel conquered this kind of Bauhaus temple and just put this very large agra carpet in it. The imprinted ornaments are based on Stingel’s own carpet, merely in black and white. We have to assume that Stingel among others hints at what the Europeans have turned this piece of Oriental culture into. It is purely and simply impudent!

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text & graphic by Eugen Braeunig