Bridges in the Sky
OK | Höhenrausch.2, Linz (Austria). 12.05 - 16.10.2011
Motive Gallery, Amsterdam (Netherlands). 12.03 - 29.04.2011
Press release
The OK "Offenes Kulturhaus" and partners set a new milestone again with HÖHENRAUSCH.2
(Thrill of the Heights). In addition to the exhibition center in the OK and on the
roofs of the city center, a broad network of partners is involved in the conceptualization
and realization of this major project.
A total of 46 art projects have been realized,
some of them site-specific new productions. The art works center around the emotional
experience quality of artistic nature events: the exhibition stages the phenomena
of "air" and "water" in an urban environment. Atmospherically tuned installations
create spaces of artistic experience along the course of the exhibition.
To begin
with, Žilvinas Kempinas uses ventilators to make magnetic tapes fly; alongside this,
Rúrí's 52 Icelandic waterfalls rush as a sound and photo archive. One floor above,
Stefan Banz covers the parquet floor of the Large Hall of the OK with real water,
thus irritating perception.
Before the passage to the outside, Lang/Baumann install
an air-filled, cylindrical bubble pushing outward through an opening. On the roof
Fujiko Nakaya transforms an unsightly car park deck into a mysterious, windy sea
of mist with countless water jets. On a large open surface behind this, Jeppe Hein
has built one of his spectacular interactive water pavilions.
Still further up, the
flat roof of a shopping center dominated by ventilators becomes the exhibition space
for Ursula Stalder's systematically arranged finds from the Venice lagoon. In a bell
tower made accessible through the bridges by Jürg Conzett, Wolfgang Dorninger creates
"false" wind noises with the replica of a baroque wind machine (but only when it
is operated by the visitors). Re-entering the OK, visitors are greeted by Eduardo
Coimbra with a sky panorama of neon tubes. Before the passage into the former cloister
building, the smoke machine by Pipilotti Rist generates beautiful, short-lived air
bubbles. Pepi Maier's spiral-shaped copper-tube ice sculpture floats in the attic
of the Ursulinenhof, iced over by the moisture of the air and with the help of a
cooling machine. Following a winding entry into the north tower, visitors finally
reach the large attic of the Ursuline church. There Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima
provide an ethereal blue hour with a hydrau ulic neon wave. The last exhibition location
leads into the nave of the church, which Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller transform
into a four-part air-sound-space with a prominent council of loudspeakers.
Complete list of the artists : Laurien Bachmann Stefan Banz, Erdal Buldun, Bow-Wow,
Janet Cardiff, Eduardo Coimbra, Jürg Conzett, Claudia Czimek, Gino De Dominicis,
Gerhard Dirmoser, Wolfgang Dorninger, Ronald Duarte, Jack Falanga, Ceal Floyer, Gianfranco
Foschino, Dara Friedman, Shaun Gladwell, Laura Glusman, Shilpa Gupta, Hauenschild
/ Ritter, Jeppe Hein, Hund & Horn, Zilvinas Kempinas, Mathias Kessler, Isabelle Krieg,
Katharina Lackner, William Lamson, Lang / Baumann, Pepi Maier, Angelika Middendorf,
Vik Muniz, Gisela Motta / Leandro Lima, Fujiko Nakaya, Yoko Ono, Steve Poleskie,
Werner Reitere, Pipilotti Rist, Ruri, Michael Sailstorfer, Eva Schlegel, Servaas,
Roman Signer, Ursula Stalder.
