A Reversed Journey Through Time
Outside the gates of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Corvey Abbey, there once existed a medieval city that was completely destroyed in the 13th century. Almost everything known about the lives of the people of Corvey comes from archaeological research into artifacts and the buried cultural remains hidden underground. On the occasion of the State Garden Show of North Rhine-Westphalia 2023 in Höxter, this invisible and lost medieval city was brought back to life for visitors.
But how can an authentic place be made tangible, how can an image of the past be created without reconstructing what is still scientifically unknown? And how can one encounter the people of the Middle Ages?
For a special form of immersion, spatial installations are combined with an auditory, scenographic narrative: five wooden cubes placed on the site of the former city represent five buildings of lost Corvey. The cubes direct attention to the former locations of the Weser bridge, the city fortifications, the Hellweg trade route, the market church, and the residence of the famous “surgeon of the Weser.”
Inside the cubes, the imagination of visitors is activated: each cube contains a radio play. An archaeologist from the present meets a person from medieval Corvey, who tells about the building and life in Corvey. The combination of spatial situations with the cubes and the narrative audio plays forms the basis for creating an individual mental image of lost Corvey at the authentic site – a personal “mind cinema.”
After the official end of the State Garden Show, the cubes with their audio plays remain in Höxter. In sight of Corvey Abbey in the Weser bend, they continue to invite visitors to immerse themselves in the life of the medieval city of Corvey.
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