urban matters

Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Niederösterreich

Since the mid-1990s, more than 600 different projects in public space in Lower Austria have been implemented on the basis of the then newly passed Cultural Promotion Act: from autonomous sculpture and art in buildings to street furniture, temporary contextualisation and communicative intervention to the design of squares, memorials and art projects in cooperation with the population. There is no comparable region in Europe with such a dense network of artworks of such a high quality and their anchoring in the communities.

The institution “Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Niederösterreich” (Public Art Lower Austria) is a funding agency and is located directly in the Department of Art and Culture of the province. It supports municipalities, associations and institutions in the development, implementation and presentation of artistic projects in public spaces.

As an interface between artists, municipalities, architects and many other participants, “Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Niederösterreich” accompanies the development process and is jointly responsible for the maintenance of the permanently realised works.

The mediation of the projects plays an important role alongside the implementation on site: In addition to an extensive website, which also functions as an archive, a publication series serves to document all projects, and a wide range of information brochures provide on-site information. “Landpartien” (country outings) to artworks in public space were offered from 2016 onwards, which were given a new orientation in 2019 with the format of the INVENTOUR.

www.publicart.at

 

Claudia Märzendorfer, FOR THE BIRDS, 2019

Permanent installation of 38 bird houses, designed and realized by more than 40 participating artists*, musicians*, writers* and architects in the garden of the Landesklinikum Hollabrunn

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the social psychiatric department of the

Landesklinikum Hollabrunn, Claudia Märzendorfer designed a surprising project, in which numerous other participants are involved and which offers “equally joy and material for animated conversations” (J. Pacher). The artist invited internationally renowned visual artists, authors, architects and musicians, to develop a contribution to a collective aeronautical sculpture garden, which consists of individual birdhouses and is located in the exterior space and tree population of the hospital. The figurative sense of the commonly used term “bird” has been deliberately chosen by the artist. With the help of this project she wants to “send a clear signal for diversity and the unconventional, especially for a respectful coexistence” (J. Pacher). For the Birds wants to contribute to public acceptance and by the involvement of many artists of different genres supports a shift of the thematic localisation from the periphery to the centre of our society.   

Claudia Märzendorfer, born 1969, lives and works in Vienna.

https://www.publicart.at/en/projects/all/?pnr=983&weiter=1

www.forthebirds.at

 

Florian Pumhösl, MAHNMAL, 2020

Permanent memorial, WasserCluster Lunz, Dr. Carl Kupelwieser Promenade 5

Up until the end of the 1930s, the area where WasserCluster Lunz (WCL) now stands was occupied by the Seereith farmhouse, which was used as a youth center. A district youth center (Gaujugendheim) was then built on the site, and from the summer of 1940 on, it served (among other things) as the organization office of the military training camp (Wehrertüchtigungslager) for the Hitler Youth in Lunz. At the camp, the 14 to 18-year-old boys trained in military field and target practice for four to six weeks, while also attending lectures indoctrinating them politically and ideologically in the Nazi worldview. Both the director of the Lunz Hitler Youth camps as well as the district leader of the Hitler Youth of the Lower Danube district (today Lower Austria) were involved in massive crimes in the greater Lunz am See area toward the end of the war.

The memorial created by Florian Pumhösl on the grounds next to WasserCluster Lunz (WCL) takes the form of a freestanding, white wall on whose surface the artist reproduced in sgraffito the Yes/No part of the voting ballot for what was officially referred to as the “Parliamentary Election in Greater Germany and the Referendum for Reuniting Austria with the German Reich” (the so-called “Anschluss referendum”) on April 10, 1938. Using reduced means, the artist chose a precise and highly visible way to remind us of the dangers of overturning democratic principles in society.

The creation of the memorial was initiated by WasserCluster Lunz in collaboration with the Department of Arts and Culture / Public Art Lower Austria.

Florian Pumhösl, born 1971, lives and works in Vienna and Munich.

https://www.publicart.at/en/calendar/?pid=1010

 

Exhibition

DIE VERWANDLUNG – BORDERS ARE VACILLATING 

A project by Iris Andraschek und Hubert Lobnig, 2019

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Iron Curtain, nine

international artists are invited to perform in and around the former Austrian

Czech border station Fratres/Slavonice Work on the current significance of the

of changing boundaries. The starting point is installation

Where do the borders disappear? Kam mizí hranice? by Iris

Andraschek and Hubert Lobnig, who act here as curators and artists.

2015 was a turning point in the attitude and discourse on questions of territorial Boundaries. The starting point for this were the many people forced to flee to Europe because of the the civil war in Syria. Suddenly, national borders became the subject of entire election campaigns. Humanitarian aspects and the

social responsibility were very controversial discussed issues.

For Iris Andraschek and Hubert Lobnig, looking back on the years and in the context of 30 years of the fall of the Iron Curtain the question was how borders and the discourses about them have changed since then. For the continuation of the project’s original question of 2009 – Where do borders disappear – terms like transformation and metamorphosis as central aspects were added. Borders are Vacillating – Tilting and wavering borders. They disappear, they wander, they become invisible, shift, dissolve and reinforce elsewhere. 

Participating artists:

Ana Teresa Fernández (MEX), Marlene Hausegger (A), Estefania Peñafiel Loaiza

(ECU), Moritz Matschke (A), Filippo Minelli (I), Thea Moeller (D), Alban Muja (RKS), 

Hannes Zebedin (A), Martin Zet (CZ)

With a project by students of the TU Vienna – Institute for Art and Design

as well as a projects by Agnieska Kalinowska, Abbé Libansky and Friedemann

Derschmidt with reference to 2014.

The artistic projects in the outdoor space are on display until the end of 2020.

https://www.publicart.at/en/projects/all/?pnr=1011

 

Photo Credits:

1-3. Hollabrunn, Märzendorfer, For the Birds, (c) W.Woessner

5. Fratres, (c)Andraschek Lobnig

6. Fratres, Andraschek Lobnig, (c)W.Woessner

 

 

Advisory Committee beginning September 2019

Rafael Ecker (executive director „NÖ KREATIV GmbH“)
Silvia Eiblmayr (arthistorian)
Petra Eichlinger (Baudirektion Amt der NÖ Landesregierung)
Marlene Hausegger (artist)
Peter Kozek (artitst)
Lilli Lička (landscape architect)
Heidi Pretterhofer (architect)
Anton Lederer (curator, head < rotor > Graz)