The concept for ich atme innerlich ... is based on the idea of creating positive affirmations for children. Casually repeated words and thoughts become anchored in our subconscious mind, the source of our driving energies. The affirmations are formulated in such a way as to be suitable for either children or the elderly. They are open, so that no-one feels left out, and they can be positively interpreted by anyone. For instance: “I am clever”, “my thoughts are free”, “I like myself”, “I’m curious”, “I feel myself in good hands”, “we can do it”.
The affirmations are distributed all over the school, yet in a fairly incidental way. They are worked into the material, or display the same colour as their background.

While the effect and validity of the positive affirmations apply to everybody individually, Ernst Jandl’s multi-facetted poem “ich atme innerlich aber die nasenlöcher habe ich außen” (“I breathe inside but my nostrils are outside”), which is attached to the external façade, takes up the theme that everyone is also connected to the outside world. The Public Space project associates both the children and the school building with an organism, thereby making a connection between the “inner breath” and the environment, i.e. with that which enters from the outside “through the nostrils”.

ich atme innerlich ... (“I breathe inside …”), 2012
Art in public space, Krenglbach Primary School, architecture: Karl and Bremhorst Architects
Commissioned by the Municipality of Krenglbach
Invited competition, implemented

* Ernst Jandl, Poetische Werke, ed. Klaus Siblewski. Copyright 1997, Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich (Random House Group)

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