Katharina Grosse Transforms Former Cattle Breeding Cooperative into Art Campus in Brandenburg

German artist Katharina Grosse has been converting the former cattle breeding cooperative "Völkerfreundschaft" in Schenkenberg, Groß Kreutz, Brandenburg, into an art campus since 2022. The site, about 50 kilometers west of Berlin, spans six hectares and includes eight large buildings such as cow barns, sheds, and a pigsty. Grosse acquired the property to combine indoor and outdoor working spaces, a need not met by her Berlin studio. The Wunderblock Stiftung, founded by Grosse, is headquartered there. The artist, known for her expansive spray paintings on architecture and landscapes, has collaborated with Berlin architects Georg Augustin and Ute Frank of augustinundfrank/winkler to renovate the buildings with minimal intervention. The site now includes studios, exhibition spaces, a library, and living quarters. Grosse and her partner, New Zealand artist Judy Millar, have winter and summer studios in the converted barns. Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf has designed the grounds, creating a "magic garden" with native plants and breaking up over 4,000 square meters of sealed surfaces. The project also engages with the site's East German history; writer Annett Gröschner is researching its past. Grosse's exhibition at the Munch Museum in Oslo opens on September 26, featuring new watercolors created at Munch's studio in Ekely, along with a large aluminum piece and a reworking of her 2004 installation "Das Bett" into "Schwarzes Bett".