2010
St. Ursula / Böhm Chapel - Cologne - Germany
Böhm Chapel has been the name of the St. Ursula parish church since Rafael Jablonka opened his gallery at the end of 2010 in the secularized religious building. The building’s spatial integrity was preserved; the greatest change was the removal of the church furniture—otherwise, it was only repaired and cleaned.
The gallerist eschewed the use of additional display panels or artificial lighting; he only shows five pictures per exhibit, making use of the natural daylight that shines into the conches of the rotunda.
Gottfried Böhm, who designed the original building (1954–56), was consulted on the church’s secularization.
Böhm Chapel is dedicated to the Art of Our Time. Extensive restoration works have been performed. New bells were cast; the Bell
Music is by Philip Glass. The garden was redesigned by Piet Blanckaert. The interior space of the Chapel measures approx. 40
square meters, with a heigt of 12 meters. It has six windows with a heigt of approx. 8 meters and a width of 2 meters. The space is
illuminated with natural daylight only.
- courtesy Jablonka Galerie