"At the Lothringer 13 gallery, the artists, designers, and studios nominated this year for the City of Munich’s advancement awards present their work.
"It’s a private, not a political project." For years, Nord Stream 2 was excused with sentences like this. Now many wish that the billion-euro project would simply vanish into thin air. And Nord Stream 1, which pumps millions of euros daily into Russia’s war chest, is increasingly becoming a point of contention as well.

The solution? Naturally, "Nord Stream 3" — as proposed by Benedikt Hartl and his colleagues from the activist architecture firm Opposite Office in Munich. Are they crazy? Well, strictly speaking, they are utopians. What Hartl & Co propose under this project title is to transform parts of Nord Stream 2 into an international hostel and meeting place. In other words: the pipes would become 194 sleeping berths, each month allocated — via a random generator — to one person from each country. Together, they would form "a general assembly of the little people, the citizens of the world."

With this admittedly somewhat crazy-sounding idea, Benedikt Hartl and Opposite Office have made it into renowned magazines and newspapers. And now, the project can be seen in the form of images and models attached to small pipes in Munich’s municipal gallery Lothringer 13. The reason: from now until May 15, more than 30 artists, designers, and studios nominated for the City of Munich’s 2022 advancement awards are exhibiting their work there (the award ceremony is scheduled for May 5).

Benedikt Hartl is among the nominees in the field of architecture; other categories include fine arts, design, photography, and jewelry. The projects are not always political or utopian. Still, one somehow gets the impression that ethics often outweigh aesthetics. Which doesn’t necessarily mean the message is always immediately obvious"

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Text by Jürgen Moises, excerpt from Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 21, 2022
© Photos Alscha Birkenholz & Opposite Office
Excerpt from reader comments, spiegel.de