In conjunction with the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009, where China was the guest of honour, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt showed the exposition “ART FOR THE MILLIONS. 100 SCULPTURES FROM THE MAO ERA.” More precisely, it was about the spectacular Chinese sculptural group “Rent Collection Courtyard”. This ensemble of more than one hundred life-size figures is among the most important works in modern Chinese art history.

For this exceptional exposition the exhibition hall of 70 m length and 8.5 m width was to be designed as a concrete courtyard as close to nature as possible. The ground was a sprung floor consisting of 43 mm thick timber floor boards. The planned cementitious surface had to meet the following requirements: First, the residual-free removal at the end of the exhibition had to be guaranteed. Second, the floor should bear the loads of the expected stampede of visitors, and third, it should be avoided at the same time that any rubbed-off parts of the surface spread across the hall. After having consulted Mr Dipl.-Ing. Ingo Grollmisch, application technology expert of PCI Augsburg GmbH, the company in charge, Grafile GbR from Darmstadt, opted for the following structure:

In a first step, the timber sprung floor was covered with a polyethylene sheet, with approx. 10 cm of the endings drawn up, to avoid infiltration of cement-based self-levelling mortars on the timber floor boards. Then, 19 mm chipboards were loosely laid on top of the sheet and were solidly glued to each other. After this, the Grafile GbR specialists primed the chipboard layer twice with PCI Gisogrund 404. This special bonding primer is well suited for the application with floor levelling compounds on magnesite screeds, mastic asphalt screeds, anhydrite screeds and wood surfaces. Furthermore, it is solvent-free and very low-emission according to EMICODE EC1. Additional stabilisation for the levelling process in the next step was ensured by a loosely laid PCI GFM armour mat. Afterwards, the fibre-reinforced, non-shrink floor levelling compound PCI Periplan extra was applied in a thickness of 7 mm. A spiked roller was then rolled over the cementitious floor area in order to release any entrapped air. After curing, the floor was surface-treated with impregnation for natural stone surfaces.

In this way, a flooring was produced, which met all optical as well as functional requirements. So finally, the exhibition was a great success and the cementitious structure could be removed without leaving any residues.