Retro charm Restaurant "Gustav" opens in the Bundeskunsthalle
Bonn · The Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn has a new restaurant: "Gustav" with all kinds of artistic interventions brings back the good old days. And there is also a special feature on the menu.
The good old days are returning to the Bundeskunsthalle. At least gastronomically. There, the Viennese architect Gustav Peichl, who died in 2019, was now remembered for giving his Bundeskunsthalle, which opened in 1992, the atmosphere of a Viennese coffee house. His idea of the good old days. 31 years after its opening and several redesigns, Peichl's almost cosy retro charm now presents itself in a revitalised form, spruced up by artists' hands.
A black-and-white chequerboard look on the floor - obviously a reverence to the famous Viennese workshops and their geometric Art Nouveau style -, a red-and-white check frieze at the top of the wall, round glass lamps hanging from the ceiling, small tables with the classic black bentwood chairs by Thonet, a simple room divider, an overhanging counter at the front: the impression of a Viennese café has been achieved. And to the right, when you enter the "Gustav", you see slender glass doors leading out to the terrace on Museum Square.
The redesign of the restaurant is part of a fundamental "revitalisation", as they say. The service areas of the Bundeskunsthalle are being repositioned. For example, the Walter König bookshop, which was located in the passageway to the Bundeskunsthalle, will move into the foyer area. The opening is planned for the beginning of May. The artist Yun Yang will design the bookshop's rooms - incorporating Peichl's original designs.
A salon is to operate in the former König bookshop
The café previously housed in the foyer will disappear. This is likely to displease many visitors who previously suffered from the aseptic coldness of the foyer design by the Düsseldorf office HPP (2014) and found some cosiness in the café zone in the huge high entrance hall. Now the coffee lovers will move into the "Gustav" after their visit to the museum, and the hall will be clean and empty again.
According to the plan, a "salon" in the style of the "Salon 53177" project run by the Bundeskunsthalle in front of the Fronhof-Galeria in Bad Godesberg will move into the former home of the König bookshop. "Your space to try things out, to get creative and to linger", as the "Salon 53177" is advertised, a socio-cultural oasis. The former bookshop is to become a low-threshold meeting place, the Bundeskunsthalle hopes.
Artists were involved in the design of the "Gustav"
Its director Eva Kraus was keen to get artists on board for the design of the "Gustav". She has won over a currently very popular dream team from the German capital. Alicja Kwade, born in Berlin in 1979 in Poland, represented by the Galerie Johann König and known for her surreal play with materials, has, for example, fitted a sky-blue stone sphere between the legs of a Thonet chair, which also becomes the seat. The work is called "Siège du Monde". On the wall hangs the clock "Gegen den Lauf", in which the second hand moves normally but the whole clock rotates counterclockwise (its counterpart can be admired in the sculpture park of the collector Andra Lauffs-Wegner in Bad Honnef-Rhöndorf). Also by Kwade: two of the twelve frosted glass lamps that flicker synchronously.
The interventions by Gregor Hildebrandt, Berlin artist (born 1974), represented by Perrotin and Kwade's partner, only catch the eye at second glance: the almost 19-metre-long "wallpaper" on the wall opposite the window front is covered with the slightly shimmering magnetic coating of audio cassettes and replaces the dark wooden panels that were here before. "New York room", he calls it.
In keeping with the retro style: the "Gustav" currently has no website. The room divider consists of shell-shaped bent records. On the terrace stands the bronze "Gustav", a chess piece that would have its perfect field of action in the guest room of the "Gustav". All in all, a great appearance.
In keeping with the retro style of the interior, the "Gustav", which belongs to DaCapo Service GmbH, which runs the restaurants Schützenhof, Bacco, Waldau, Godesburg and the Burgrestaurant Münchhausen, does not have its own homepage, at least for the time being. Reservations are made by telephone, just like in the good old days.
Original text: Thomas Kliemann
Translation: Mareike Graepel
