Wood and Stone, Grafenbergalm, Styrian Alps, Austria, 2022
International Artists in Residence project – LandArt
Garlands – a collaborative piece as part of the symposium.
I took a very circuitous route up to the Grafenberalm by way of a delayed flight, a connection missed, a train to Schladming by way of Munich, a light dose of food poisoning, and Strasbourg a room with a first view of the mountains. Meeting Erwin Lacken at the train station we made our way up to the trail head in his car. For divergent reasons but convergent outcomes both Erwin and I were under the weather as it was, and the day was hot so the walk was slow, encumbered as we were with provisions and gear. Flying from Ireland and travelling light I was not carrying anything by way of tools. I had come with an openness of mind to react to the site that Luise Kloos had selected for the project. High mountain pastures with wood and stone and flowers. The abundant yellow flowers in a small clearing after a steep rise welcomed me to the upper pastures with an elevating joy.
This was matched and amplified by the work at hand and the artists joined from around Austria, Croatia and me from Ireland.
Rosi Bradroitti’s Posthuman book which shared my long extended journey and was now permeating my thinking on our collective activities on the mountain. Our work in nature, our work with nature and our work as nature with no degree of separation.
Garlands celebrated the coming together of all these elements, it was a temporary relational work – honouring the people who made the journey as much as the artists who preceded them in the landscape. A posthuman gesture acknowledging we are not separate, we are not above or beneath, but rather we are consistent with nature in all its contingencies.
Saturday, July 16, 2022, 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m
Dachsteinalm (Grafenbergalm)
Art hike with work presentations and performances.
On the occasion of Bodo Hell’s 44-year mountain summer
Participating artists: Ursula Beiler (AUT), Götz Bury (AUT), Mark Cullen (IRL), Ivan Fijolić (HRV), Silvia Maria Grossmann (AUT/CHE), Bodo Hell (AUT), Luise Kloos (AUT), Erwin Lackner (AUT) , Maria Schneider (AUT), Gerlinde Thuma (AUT), Kurt Ryslavy (AUT/BEL), Josip Zanki (HRV)
Guest artists: Willi Steiner vlg. Egger (Ramsau), Jakob Brandstätter vlg. Marharter (Ramsau), Linde Waber (AUT)
Greetings:
Ernst Fischbacher, Mayor of Ramsau
Regina Stocker, Cultural Officer Ramsau
dr Günter Riegler, City Councilor for Culture Graz
Introduction:
dr Tanja Gurke, art historian
Thanks:
State of Styria Culture, City of Graz Culture, Municipality of Ramsau, Lodenwalker Jörg Steiner, Almbauern under Chairman Herwig Erlbacher, Waldgenossenschaft Weissenbach under Chairman Thomas Moosbrugger vlg. ice moar
Organisation
next – association for contemporary art
A cooperation project with Luise Kloos, Next, Josip Zanki, HDLU, Zagreb and Mark Cullen supported by Culture Ireland
Mark Cullen 