‘Tiger and Turtle – Magic Mountain’ | Duisburg Germany | Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth

Tiger and Turtle - Magic Mountain
Lately, the sleek curved shape of a rollercoaster highlights widely visible the highest peak of the park like designed Heinrich Hildebrand Höhe in the South of Duisburg. The dynamic sweeps and curves of the construction inscribe themselves like a signature into the scenery and soar till the height of 21 meters. From a distance the metallic glossy track creates the impression of speed and exceeding acceleration. Viewed from close up, the supposed lane turns out to be a stairway which, elaborately winding, follows the course of the rollercoaster. The visitor can climb the art work by foot. Although the course describes a closed loop, it is impossible to accomplish it as the looping emerges to be a physical barrier. On top, at the highest point of the sculpture – 45 meters above ground – the visitor is rewarded with an extraordinary view over the landscape of the Western Ruhr.

Tiger and Turtle - Magic Mountain

Tiger and Turtle - Magic Mountain

“Tiger and Turtle” refers with its immanent dialectic of speed and deadlock to the situation of change in the region and its turn towards renaturation and restructuring. While the sculpture conveys an absurd twist regarding the inherent expectation of the image created by a rollercoaster, it reflects its own role as potential trans8regional lanmark which will be inevitably pocketed as image. It counters the logic of permanent growth with an absurd8contradictory sculpture that refuses a definite interpretation.

Tiger and Turtle - Magic Mountain
Tiger and Turtle - Magic Mountain

With 44 x 37 meters base and 21 meters construction height the sculpture is not only one of the largest in Germany, but also a masterpiece of engineering. Especially the draft of the stairs (developed in collaboration with Arnold Walz) consequentially and elegantly winds along the three8 dimensional shape that is in every spot different and therefore harbours a so far never accomplished challenge.
Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth create together artistic projects in public space and exhibition venues since eight years. Their works are site specifically and contextually developed and reflect in a magnifold way the conditions of publicness. Since 2007 the artist duo lives and works in Hamburg where Heike Mutter holds professorship at the Hochschule für bildende Künste.

Tiger and Turtle - Magic Mountain
Tiger and Turtle - Magic Mountain

Tiger & Turtle Magic Mountain Planning Partners:
City of Duisburg, awarding authority;
Arnold Walz, parametric 38d planning, designtoproduction / Stuttgart;
Michael Staffa, planning of structural framework, ifb frohloff staffa kühl ecker / Berlin;
Sonja Becker + Rüdiger Karzel, bk2a architektur / Köln;
A project of the cultural capital of Europe RUHR.2010.

© Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth, „Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain“, Landmarke Angerpark, City of Duisburg. A project of the cultural capital of Europe RUHR.2010.

IMAGE CREDITS: Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth

About Damian Holmes 3253 Articles
Damian Holmes is the Founder and Editor of World Landscape Architecture (WLA). He is a registered landscape architect (AILA) working in international design practice in Australia. Damian founded WLA in 2007 to provide a website for landscape architects written by landscape architects. Connect on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianholmes/