Schloß Moyland -

About 12 kilometers away from our spot in Kleve, one finds Schloß (Castle) Moyland. They allow one-night free parking for motorhomes. After my whining that we had been in Germany close to a month and had not yet stopped at a castle, it was a required side-trip. We hadn't done any research on the castle and were expecting a tour of a castle... instead, we found a marvelous art exhibit (several actually). We wound up spending about four hours touring the art exhibit inside the castle – it was amazing! Surprisingly, the kids were pretty patient throughout the visit – though Dan and I could easily have spent another full day enjoying the exhibits.

The theme during our exhibit was "Im Auge des Klangs I - The Eye of Sound I" and to summarize from the brochure, "The exhibit showcases 12 international positions of contemporary sound and light art."

I was surprised at the sheer amount of artwork on display -we're talking full walls covered in artist's work, from the basement, to the top of the towers - in addition to the light and sound exhibitions. It was overwhelming and fantastic all at the same time. Makes me wish I had studied art history.

The light and sound artists included: Maria de Alvear, Henning Chistiansen, Ronald Kuiila, Erwin Stache, Marianne Greve, Tony Oursler, Stefan Scneider, Ralf Schreiber, Christina Kubisch, Andreas Oldorp, Alvin Curran, Benoit Maubrey and Miki Yui. The primary artist on display was Joseph Beuys, who, according to the museum's brochure, "...redefined the concept of sculpture, opened it into acoustic and non-materialised spheres and related it to all the human senses."

The kids loved the sound and light exibits. One was an array of drawers laid out on the floor, each with piano wire stretched across and a needle resting against the piano wire. Everything was wired up to a central point and made the most haunting of noises, seeming to respond to sound and/or vibrations of the room.

Living Particles by Ralf Schreiber was ... "a light sledge moves over solar controlled modules and stimulates an almost silent sound of a chaotic nature." In my words: A set of tracks conveyed a box left to right in the room. Between the tracks were photo cell sensors and as the box passed over them, the light inside the box activated the sensors which resulted in varying sounds as the box moved along the tracks. Very cool. Sophia couldn’t resist the urge to lay on the floor and watch under the box!

The only exhibit we didn’t get to appreciate fully was two swings, suspended from the ceiling with violin bows sitting on them I think this was the Saitenschaukeln by Erwin Stache). Guests are invited to sit on the swings and stroke the support wires with the bows… sadly, I just didn’t understand the signs well enough to be certain of what to do. Not used to having exhibits that invite you to interact.

Outside were huge gardens on either side of the castle, complete with sculptures which were very beautiful and fun to explore. The gardens contained a variety of historical plants as well as gifted plants.

The castle was in ruins after WWII and sat until the 1990’s. The building was renovated and opened as an art museum in 1997, and as you can see in the picture above, one tower is still being renovated. Well worth the visit - could have used an extra day.