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Friedrich Gräfling
Diploma 4
The unfolding of categories presents new relations, configurations and proximities, which need to be addressed. The project lies in the architecture where the categories overlap and the softpower operates. This drawing displays the global expansion of categories in relation to the apparatuses of governance. Historically it was contained within one building but gradually has expanded beyond. Initially controlling from within the castle, expanding through the industrialization, becoming closer though the expansion in its rail system, sharing the knowledge in a network of museums and expanding the economical presents through the stock exchange. The project operates through the method of looking at everything through the court. The expansion of it has been analysed through the historical presence of Prussia. With the edict of Potsdam Elector Friedrich the 3rd gave the persecuted Huguenots not only a safe immigration but also numerous other benefits. The refugee transport to Berlin was well planned - already in the adverse nations Protestants were collected and brought to King Friedrich. During this time, Berlin grew from 6000 to 50000 inhabitants and the sudden French influence transformed the city tremendously. A court, such as Versaille was needed, thus the Stadtschloss in Berlin constructed. Axes were drawn, districts designed and Parks inserted.Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the most dominant architect at that time, reunited the categories, which were dispersed throughout the city, through his architecture. Forming an urban court. This map explains the urban condition of Berlin with the Stadtschloos being in the centre and its dispersed categories. The city formed the court and dependence, debate and exchange operated among the archives. The Guggenheim Foundation, initially being thought of actually proofing that this cultural category operates with other archives through the global Guggenheim network - basically a contemporary court, stands only as a global brand. A brand for which the balance between museum size, building cost and collection size is in no dependence to each other. Even on this level there is no relation amongst the museums but the name. One of the biggest cultural institutions, the documenta in Kassel, presents a huge identification by the city with the documenta, but no traces, negotiations or further discussions within the city are present.On the same note as those cultural categories, political archives have been studied. The G8 conference in Heiligendamm, a meticulously staged and planned event, resulted in a complete isolation both internally and publicly. How is the court interpreted? A court is the device to activate, mix, exchange, produce and document archives. A space, that combines practices of governance, the arts, the finance and serves educational purposes. It produces aesthetics, behaviors, ways of looking at things - all in a minute way. The Somerset House in London combines cultural uses, the production of knowledge through academic institutions, a governmental usage and broadcasting means, forming a contemporary court. While the first brief organized a series of physical debates among managements and the arts in the University of Maastricht, the second developed into an article, an online debate, in the opinion magazine 'The European'. The author, Ruben Schuster, questions Friedrich Gräfling's research and thesis and whether Angela Merkels office should be considered as a Großraumbüro. A Großraumbüro, not in form of an event space, bringing different categories together on a constant, even daily basis. The stakeholders mentioned, was were Angela Merkel, Prof. Dr. Habermas, Josef Ackerman and Anselm Kiefer are sharing this Großraumbüro. Where and how could this exchange manifest?