Alles für die Katz'
Alles für die Katz' (For the cats) arose from a collaboration with Swiss-based New Zealand artist with Mark Baskett, as part of the Pilot Projekt residency programme in Gropius Stadt. The area is a large tower-block neighbourhood in south Berlin, built in the 1960s and 1970s.
After time wandering and chatting, we came across some stables where around 40 abandoned cats are cared for. We built a spiral staircase for cats in the area, rising up to a height of some seven metres around a tree.
The work is a temporary installation, unobtrusively installed around a tree just off a path in the vicinity of the stables. We don't know how many cats actually use the staircase, but passers-by can also admire the new feline-scale architectural intervention. Much as the local residents climb their staircases in the evening, the cats now are able to climb to comparable heights with man-made assistance. The title is a play on words in German. It literally means 'for the cats', but is also a phrase meaning that something needs to be thrown away.
Click here to see the location of the piece.
