2014 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of the inventor and reformer Sir Benjamin Thompson, who went down in Munich’s history as Count Rumford.
He was an adventurer, political daredevil, womaniser, social reformer, inventor and scientist. The people of Munich owe him the English Garden, the British the »Royal Institution« (a science college that still exists today), the Bavarians the potato on their menu and the rest of humanity theoretical insights into thermodynamics that led to very practical applications such as brighter oil lamps, better stoves and warmer ovens.
“Heat is a form of motion – Das Rumford-Labor” (“Heat is a form of motion – The Rumford Laboratory”) by Yvonne Leinfelder and Alix Stadtbäumer is an interdisciplinary public art project that takes an artistic look at Rumford as a person and his innovative approaches to reform.
The project refers to key principles and inventions from Rumford’s work. The aim of artists Yvonne Leinfelder and Alix Stadtbäumer is to bring together people from different disciplines with different skills, knowledge and talents.
The “Rumford Laboratory” is made up of various modules, including temporary art actions with social, artistic and scientific aspects as well as workshops and events that take place in public spaces and reach out into different neighbourhoods.
A project by
Alix Stadtbäumer and Yvonne Leinfelder
With
Günther Anfang, Ayzit Bostan, Martin Fengel, Susu Gorth, Rita Hensen, Ronald Kodritsch & Anita Fuchs, Patricia de Mayo, Heidi Mühlschlegel, Patricia London Ante Paris, Raquel Rodriguez, Katrin Siebeck, Martin Weimar, Stefan Wischnewski, Martin Wöhrl, Alma Tischler Wood and John Wood
Alix Stadtbäumer, born in 1956 in Münster, lives and works in Munich. Yvonne Leinfelder, born in 1972 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, lives and works in Munich.
