Letter from Werner Ruhnau, originator of the “play street” at the Munich Olympics

   Prof. Dipl.-Ing. WERNER RUHNAU
ARCHITECT AND URBAN PLANNER
BDA VDI dwb



Dear Mr. Lurker,

For the Olympic Games of 1972 in Munich, I developed the "play street" event. The planning team also included Claus Bremer (dramaturg, Berlin) and Hans Curjel (art historian, Zurich). The sports games were to be accompanied by performing, visual, object, and sound artists.

We had the intention of integrating art and sports activities, and we recognized that sports games, similar to theater, are performances.  In both cases, the audience passively takes in the presentations with a certain consumer attitude.  To challenge this attitude, we built a large number of small, variable activity areas around the Olympic lake in the midst of stadiums that were geared for large audiences.  These small action fields could be used for a large variety of playful activities.  We wanted to contrast the large scale of the arenas and break them up with the counterpart of playful visitors and encourage participation.

In contrast to the audience’s more passive attendance of the sports events, visitors were able to move freely on the play street.  They could choose their own program from the wide range of simultaneously offered scenic, visual and acoustic presentations.  They could interact with the players and take part in the events, when actors, painters, sculptors, artists or musicians invited them to do so.

Measurable results did not matter in the events of the play street. The "victory" for the participants in these festive games was their creative input in the spontaneously emerging, diverse events and creations.

The fact that within this framework, PlayArt as a new art form, could be employed was a very pleasant surprise for our team. The objectives of the two concepts could not have been more closely intertwined. Obviously, the public played and participated with enthusiasm.

Werner Ruhnau 
(Biographie)

Scan of the original letter in German: