This summer, the French artist Bernar Venet presents a group of nine steel sculptures in Salzburg on the "Krauthügel", part of the Archabbey St. Peter: monumental arches, circle segments and spiral forms turn the area into a temporary sculpture park. The pieces stand in a charged relationship with the imposing landscape scenery beneath the Hohensalzburg castle, conveying new perspectives to the viewer. The sculpture exhibition was realised in close cooperation with the Stiftung für Kunst (Foundation for Art) and Kulture e.V. Bonn.
Bernar Venet (*1941) was, among others, a participant in the documenta VI and VII as well as the 38th and 53rd Biennale in Venice. The artist lives and works in the south of France and New York. For several years he has presented his sculptures in public spaces, in differing places in numerous metropolises across Europe, Asia, and the USA. In connection with the presentation in Salzburg, his newest project, the sculpture Nine Straight Lines on the Promenade des Anglais on the beach in Nizza, will be christned by France's President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Bernar Venet continually seeks ideal forms of expression in his artistic work, to achieve in his works the reduction to the fundamentals. In the 60s he created pictures from tar and concerned himself intensively with mathematical formulas which he used as motifs. For him, they held no informative value, instead purely formal worth. After a multi-year creative break in the beginning of the 70s, when he taught Art History at the Sorbonne in Paris, among other things, he was again inspired by mathematical formulas and diagrams. This time, the line became his focus of study and continues to fascinate him. Since the 80s, the artist has been transforming lines into monumental steel sculptures of imposing size and materials - such as are displayed on the "Krauthügel". The titles of the works, for example 222° Arc x 5 reveal the persistent connection to math even in their sober objectivity.
May 21st - August 31st, 2010
Location: Brunnenhausgasse / on the corner of Hans-Sedlmayr-Weg
www.stiftungkunst.de
www.salzburgfoundation.at
