KISDtalk with Lutz Fritsch

Over the past few decades, public libraries have undergone a fundamental transformation: from places for storing and lending books to vibrant spaces for socialising, learning, cultural participation and democratic engagement. They are, in the truest sense, third spaces – places in between, both public and private, characterised by their own unique form of openness and freedom.

The KISDtalk “Public Libraries: Service Design for Third Spaces” spans the spectrum from an artistic Third Space created by the artist Lutz Fritsch at the Neumayer Station in Antarctica to a MiniBib in the heart of Chorweiler – presenting the results of a short-term project realised there.

Lutz Fritsch
was born in Cologne in 1955 and studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy/Münster. He is known for his site-specific large-scale sculptures, such as “Rheinorange” (1992) at the Rhine-Ruhr estuary in Duisburg, the “Library in the Ice” (2005) in Antarctica, and his two-part sculpture “Standortmitte” (2008) at the start and end of the motorway between Cologne and Bonn.

Since 1978, he has been exploring the relationship between line, colour, surface and space. Characteristic of his artistic work is his approach to these aspects, which is both intuitive and analytical, and which he explores across various media, from sculpture to drawing and photography.

Photos © Lutz Fritsch