The best running trails around Aasee

The Allwetterzoo Münster is a park-like zoological garden in Münster, Westphalia. It gets its name from the "all-weather walkways" created by the zoo architects during its construction, which make it possible to reach many of the zoo's houses via covered paths.

This is a nice destination on warm days.

It's still under renovation on February 26th, therefore it's actually only a special exhibition.

Sophia Trollmann notes: In 1977, Donald Judd positioned two concentric concrete rings on the slope of Lake Aasee. The inner ring is aligned horizontally, analogous to the mirrored surface of the lake, while the outer ring follows the slope of the grassy hill. Depending on the viewer's position, the perspective changes, and thus the perception of the two circles and their relative positions in the open terrain. As in many of his works, a simple, geometric body in the rings oscillates between open and closed forms; the opposing poles of beginning and end, fullness and emptiness, cancel each other out. Although Judd always rejected the term Minimal Art for his artistic practice, he is considered, along with artists such as Robert Morris and Sol LeWitt, the founder of this art movement that emerged in New York in the 1960s. The form and material of his serially and industrially produced objects are closely intertwined. Through this interweaving, Judd insisted on the material quality of his objects: their level of interpretation does not transcend the object itself; they are not symbols of something else. His art was not intended to be representative, but rather – always keeping the human being as the measure in mind – to become a physical experience. The viewer can realize "that they themselves establish the relationships through the change of the eyepoint, the lighting, and the spatial context, and that the designation of scale is a function of their own body size." Judd's works relate absolutely to their surroundings and to their respective landscape-topographical or architectural spatial structure. The two concentric concrete rings in Münster represent, so to speak, an ideal type of the existing topography.

Ronja Primke writes: Since the 2007 Sculpture Projects Münster exhibition, two massive, four-and-a-half-meter-high hedges have lined the banks of the Aasee. Rosemarie Trockel had the yew bushes planted parallel to the walking path six months before the exhibition to achieve the appropriate size and strength for the hedge, as well as to enable her to perform the targeted shaping. She placed the four sides of the hedge, cut into two blocks, slightly asymmetrically. She had the surfaces of the yew blocks trimmed not horizontally but sloped downwards toward the inner edge. A narrow, tapered passage between the yew blocks provides a view of the high-rise buildings on the other side of the lake. This passage is just wide enough for a person to walk through sideways and thus pass through the sculpture. Due to its shape and positioning on the banks of the Aasee, the work formally corresponds to the high-rise buildings opposite, and the dark green of the yew trees references the weathered facades. The height and density are reminiscent of a sculpture made of wood or stone, while the treatment of the yew bushes evokes traditional sculptural methods. Like Trockel's series of works of the same name, "Less Sauvage than Others" proposes a stagnation contrary to natural plant growth. Despite the massive and seemingly rigid forms of the yew blocks, the hedges are still a renewable material. The sculpture is thus constantly undergoing metamorphosis; the emerging branches imperceptibly change its form over the years, although the repeated, precise pruning of the yew bushes prevents uncontrolled growth.

I was sitting there too! 👍😊

the Aasee is always beautiful

From here you can take great photos of the spires of Münster's churches.