Radio Operator

Bildungscampus Funkerberg, City of Königs Wusterhausen DE 2021

The „Funkerberg“ (Radio Mountain) is firmly linked to the beginnings of radio broadcasting. Antenna masts more than 100 meters high were erected here and marked the technical location from afar. On December 22, 1920, Germany’s first radio broadcast was aired at this location with a Christmas concert.
A sculpture is placed at the main entrance to the educational campus, evoking the abstracted head of a cheerful radio operator with earphones on, his nose formed by an antenna stretched up into the air. On the one hand, the antenna serves as a landmark visible from afar; on the other, it can symbolically stand for a communication model of sending and receiving which is the basis of the idea and practice of training and education. The associative proximity to the figure of Pinocchio also opens up another level of meaning, in which terms such as “”fake news”” or disinformation gain presence in a ciphered way, giving the school a special significance and responsibility as a site of critical reflection. The historically charged location forms the basis here, where references to content and form allow for unexpected and open possibilities of interpretation.”