The Open Book

"THE OPEN BOOK" OF THE CITY OF HÜNFELD

The gateway to the urban museum

Since 1996, Hünfeld has developed into an open-air museum of a different kind. The "Concrete Poetry", a literary movement initiated by Eugen Gomringer, decorates many of the city's walls. The idea came from the artist Jürgen Blum, an engine of Concrete Art. In collaboration with the Museum Modern Art, of which Blum was director for many years, he began to realize the "Open Book" in Hünfeld together with Karl Möller and Elmar Wald.

The goal: an immediate, direct encounter with art. The viewer encounters literature in everyday life, when shopping or walking. For the visitor, art means feeling, sensing and self-positioning. Texts by Eugen Gomringer, Václav Havel, Shalom Sechvi and many others are already on more than 100 facades.

"The Open Book" is the realisation of an idea that I dealt with in the 1960s. It referred to bringing text-like thought forms more public attention. Texts of concrete, visual, experimental and active poetry should be displayed on the free facades of a city accessible to everyone. " (Jürgen Blum)

And this city is Hünfeld, an open book that you have to go into. There's no shelf to put it anywhere else.

Digital scavenger hunt through the Open Book

An interactive city rally with your smartphone through Hünfeld is possible with the “Actionbound” app. Those interested can go on a digital scavenger hunt through the “Open Book of the City of Hünfeld”.

The city rally with a quiz character provides a lot of information, hints and interesting questions about the “Open Book” – and leads to squares in Hünfeld that are suddenly perceived in a completely new way. On foot it starts with your mobile phone in hand at the parking lot Hallenbad in Hünfeld. The app leads you to different walls of the Open Book, answers questions about language and art, takes photos of works of art, reads the “Open Book” literally and earn points. During a walk through the city, children, young people and adults learn a lot about the “Open Book” and the background to the visual text fragments.

The so-called “Bound” is public and can be downloaded free of charge via the “Actionbound” app. The bound can be found by entering the keywords “Hünfeld” or “Open Book”.