Audimax

The Audimax of the University of Bayreuth is an ideal starting point for a tour of the various works of art that can be discovered throughout the campus.

There are two spherical sculptures by artist Gisela Kleinlein in the foyer and in the outdoor area in front of the entrance. The work consists of three parts: a large concrete sphere in the foyer, a reflective black circular glass disc embedded in the floor and a smaller concrete sphere in the outdoor area.

The rough surface of the two spheres is reminiscent of planets, so that the sculptures could be interpreted as a planetary constellation of three objects orbiting each other.

Gisela Kleinlein, born in 1955 in Nuremberg, lives and works in Berlin. She has been a professor of sculpture at the University of Wuppertal since 1999.

The sculpture dates from 1998/1999 and forms the starting point of our tour of the campus.

If you look from the entrance area of the Audimax towards the staircase to the Unirondell, you will immediately notice an imposing granite column that dominates the square and serves as a marker. This sculpture by the artist Herbert Peters is entitled ‘Feldzeichen’ (Field Sign) and, with its pentagonal ground plan, towers high above the ground.

The artwork features prismatically shaped and slightly diagonally tilted surfaces. With a total height of six metres, the sculpture dominates the open space between the Audimax, the GW I and NW I buildings and the canteen. This makes this monolithic stone pillar, which was created in the early 1980s, a milestone and landmark between the surrounding building complexes.

Looking towards the NW I building, Wolfgang Bier's metal head is another very striking work of art in the immediate vicinity of the Audimax.

 Head - Wolfgang Bier

Diagonally opposite the entrance to the Audimax is an imposing metal sculpture reminiscent of the oversized skull of a futuristic-looking robot. The artist Wolfgang Bier himself says of this work, which was created in the early 1980s: ‘I mostly make heads, because it is in the head, in the face, in its movements and twitches that what makes people so fascinating is created and played out: so admirable, mysterious, incomprehensible, contradictory, horrible."