gro? kreutz is a small community westof potsdam - one house there in particular with its reddish-brown facade catchesthe eye. it's home to babette and rã¼diger kaffke.in addition to the main house the 2,200 square metre property has twostables and a barn. "this is an island of bliss closed off onfour sides so you can't see in or out. we do our own thing, that's livability." its quality: the farm buildings enclosing the rectangular courtyard were built morethan a century ago. it's since undergone extensive renovation only the oldfarming tools recall its original use.
it was almost by chance that rã¼diger kaffkebecame the owner of the former farm. he saw it in an ad in the paper. "i just picked out one of the little pictures and thought that one's quite nice. i putin an offer and one day it was mine. i never even saw the property. this is the state it was in back in 1999. when rã¼diger kaffke was unfazed. he'd already fixed up a number of houses in spain andin 2002 after 18 months of construction he and babette moved in. "this is our living space."
the one-time farmhouse has 350 square meters of floor space. justoff the dining area is a large chandelier. south african artists made itout of objects other people threw away. the kaffke's are art collectors, theirhome as space enough for the 1200 works they owned. "for us, art is something about the environment in theplace where the artist lives and what the artist was thinking. and that's whatwe see and are reminded of when we see it in our space." there's also a work bythe owner's daughter made of paper. upstairs is the largest room of thehouse measuring 50 square meters.
"this used to be the old farmhousesattic where they smoked meat. now it's a living room. this is where we end the day,leave our cares behind, read, watch tv, whatever relaxes us." this painting by thehamburg artist group 'die schlumber' adds even more color to the ambience. the roomaffords an excellent view over the property across from the house is theformer barn. during the socialist era the largebuilding served as a garage for farm machines. today it houses much of thekaffke's art collection.
"we wanted to let theserooms shine in a new way, so we filled the space with artworks that we love.each one of which shines in its own way." right next to the barn is the old henhouse now it is babette kaffke creates her own pieces here. she specializes inrelief like textures mounted unused wooden panels. "this is my studio, this iswhere i work and spend as much time as possible making art. i use differentmaterials like coffee grounds or sand to give the pictures a certain materiality." so now we're once cows weremilked and pigs were fattened, this family
has found a place they can live withtheir arts.
