Using 144 imposing tree trunks, British architect David Chipperfield (b. in 1953) transforms the open glass hall of the Neue Nationalgalerie into a densely filled hall of columns for a three-month period. The installation Sticks and Stones engages with the architecture of the museum and simultaneously serves as a prologue to the upcoming overall renovation of the museum that David Chipperfield Architects will undertake starting in 2015.

For the title of his intervention, David Chipperfield borrowed the catchy beginning of an English children’s rhyme: “Sticks and stones [may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.]” In so doing, he points to two elements of Neue Nationalgalerie and architecture in general: columns and stone. As light-hearted as the title might seem, this last special exhibition before the closing of the institution for several years is also quite profound in its meaning.