Berlin – In the future, users of the Berlin Central Bus Station (ZOB) in Charlottenburg will be welcomed by a rope around ten meters high with a sailor’s knot. The Bavarian sculptor Michael Sailstorfer won the art competition for Berlin’s most important long-distance bus station with his sculpture design “Knotenpunkt”. This was announced by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe on Monday. The jury, which had to decide on ten submissions, placed the entry in first place and recommended its realization – for which up to 203,000 euros are available. With the oversized cable, which is placed on a green island, the previously rather barren ambience of the bus station on Kaiserdamm is to be upgraded.
The work of art was evaluated as a “formally very convincing proposal that spatially encompasses the train station as a central ‘transport hub’ for long-distance bus services and at the same time creates references to architectural icons of Berlin’s urban space,” said the cultural administration. “The relation to ZOB Berlin in terms of content is impressively simple, clear and direct. In addition, a variety of associations are opened up: From the ‘knot in the handkerchief’ as a memory aid to the memory of a magic trick from childhood days.”
In other countries, however, ropes and ropes are apparently not considered positive. “The hangman’s noose association cannot be denied. That would cause a massive shitstorm in the US,” writes US correspondent Sebastian Moll on Linkedin.
Renovation of the bus station should be completed by the end of the year
The non-open art competition was announced last June. The reason for this is the renovation of the bus station, which has been ongoing since 2016 and is intended to make the system more efficient. Originally, the project, which is now valued at almost 40 million euros, was supposed to end in 2019. It is now planned to complete the third and final phase of construction, which includes the construction of a new waiting room, by the end of this year. The hall with shops is to be set up in the first quarter of 2023.
“The task of the art competition was to design art in the building specially developed for the ZOB, which creates a connection to the location and its spatial, architectural and social situation and convinces with artistic quality and expressiveness,” said the Senate. “This was linked to the idea that art strengthens the ‘welcome culture’ and makes a contribution to welcoming all passengers at the central bus station.”
New figures – traffic at the bus station has decreased in Corona times
The international bus station operator company (IOB), which in turn is a company of the state-owned Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), is responsible for the system in western Berlin. In 2020 there were temporarily no more trips due to Corona, according to the annual report of the BVG. Significant “sales and rental revenue declines that could not be fully compensated for by cost reductions” were recorded. While the IOB made a small profit of 9,100 euros in 2019, it posted a loss of 260,200 euros in the first Corona year.
“In the years 2020 and 2021, the arrivals and departures at the central bus station collapsed due to the pandemic,” reported the BVG. “In 2020 we were only able to count 63,963 arrivals and departures at the ZOB, but in 2021 only 46,968.”