KATHARINA GROSSE ^DE

World-renowned visual artist creates a gigantic, colourful dance floor measuring 2000 square metres at Roskilde Festival.

German painter Katharina Grosse has become world-renowned for her expansive paintings which she spray-paints directly onto and across objects, furniture, architecture and even landscapes.

In 2017, she received a lot of attention in Danish media when she painted both grass, trees and shrubbery in a public park in Aarhus so that the previously green surroundings were temporarily lit up in red and white.

At Roskilde Festival number 50, you can step on to her latest work of art Destroy Me Once, Destroy Me Twice – a dance floor measuring nothing less than 2000 square metres!

The expansive multicoloured painting is one of Katharina Grosse’s most comprehensive and engaging works to date and has been created specifically for the hilly landscape in the campsite. Its shape corresponds with the green surroundings and at the same time caters to bodily movement and interaction.

The dance floor will be a platform to engage with and hopefully lead to a sense of community, presence, and togetherness – key words in this year’s theme, Solidarity – Time to Act!

During the festival it will be the centre of several events and performances. Some are planned by the festival – others will emerge naturally when the festival-goers bring their own music to the floor and interact with the artwork. In this way experiencing the artwork becomes an occasion to be present together and create temporary communities – which can be seen as taking a small step towards a more solidary world.

Katharina Grosse (b. 1961) lives and works in Berlin and New Zealand.

Destroy Me Once, Destroy Me Twice is curated and realised in collaboration with Creator Projects.

Creator Projects is a Copenhagen-based art agency, a team of curators and creative people passionated about the potential of art to make a change in society and in the spaces of living, and valuing art as a vital catalyst for dialogues, debates, and dreams of our times.