A few minutes? distance from the highway, we enter a unique landscape created by the Swiss garden architect Dieter Kienast. Ramparts, pyramidal elevations and vast valleys correspond with existing forest, specially planted flora and lotus ponds in seasonally differing colours. Over these seven hectares of landscape, 61 sculptures of Austrian and international artists stand in dialogue with their environment. Starting in the classical modern, materials such as stone, wood and steel are as often to be found as concrete, glass, synthetics or fibreglass.
To start off the seasons, visitors are cordially invited to enter a world which expands the senses and provides an exciting interaction between nature and art. As part of the spring opening celebration on Sunday, April 25th at 2 PM, the new season will be greeted with music, guided tours, and a children?s programme. In particular, the sculpture Tiger Stealth (2009) by the Austrian Peter Sandbichler and Tanzenden Bäume (Dancing Trees, 1997/2010) by the German concept/ and action artist Timm Ulrichs are presented.
In questioning the borders between life and art, Peter Sandbichler forces the penetration of the ordinary with the social/cultural, but also political impulses of art. To do so, Sandbichler builds sculptures of modular structures with masterful precision which refute any gestured personal expression.
Instead, Sandbichler is interested in systems and collaborations striving towards new approaches of public-ness in form and content. Industrially produced construction materials are combined to three-dimensionally refer back to political, social, public or private intentions and to reflect medial influence.
Similarly, resulting from cooperation with knowbotic research, Tiger Stealth represents the necessity of revealing or disseminating military secrets in order to demonstrate power. A form which is invisible to radar confirms the imaginary efficiency of these war machines. As such, even the landscape, in which art is channelled as a Tamil guerrilla vehicle, is reinterpreted.
The ?total artist? Timm Ulrichs? Tanzenden Bäume (Dancing Trees) makes the statement of dialogue between nature and art. The archetype of the tree, standing for rootedness, natural growth or age, is here ironically and subtly displaced. Without completely removing these parameters, upon closer inspection, the trees begin an interaction which challenges the accepted perceptions of reality in order to present new perspectives on life, local connection, mobility and mental flexibility.
Author: Dr. Elisabeth Fiedler, Director of the Austrian Sculpture Park
Invitation to the Spring Opening Celebration of the Austrian Sculpture Park
Sunday, April 25th, 2:00 PM
Welcome: Peter Pakesch, Director of the Universalmuseum Joanneum
Introduction: Elisabeth Fiedler, Director of the Austrian Sculpture Park
Opening: LRin Bettina Vollath, Culture Representative of the State of Steiermark
Programme: 3:00 and 4:00 PM: Guided tours of the park
3:00-5:00 PM: Workshop for children
Music: Anush Apoyan Trio
Shuttle:
1:15 PM departing from Kunsthaus Graz, return at 5:00 PM from the Sculpture Park
Reservation recommended!
Driving Directions
From Graz: A9 direction of Slovenia, exit Schachenwald
Österreichischer Skulpturenpark
Berggartencafé
Thalerhofstraße 85
8141 Unterpremstätten
T +43-316/8017-9704
skulpturenpark@museum-joanneum.at
www.skulpturenpark.at
News-Detail
April 2010
Spring opening of the Austrian Sculpture Park near Gratz (A)
