Project – Florian Conrad-Eybesfeld

The project presents eleven positions within a 3000 m² area,
divided into 75.95 m length and 39.5 m width,
each to be completed within 24 hours on the first day of the month.

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Bernd Oppl, born in 1980 in Innsbruck, uses his work to explore the spaces we move through: spaces created by others or those we create for ourselves, real or virtual architectures, external or internal, physical or mental spaces.

The spaces themselves become the protagonists in his objects and installations, telling us what is or is not happening within them. His piece NO FUTURE was created for the Eybesfeld castle park in discussion and collaboration with Florian Conrad-Eybesfeld.

The work of artist Elisabeth Molin, born 1985 in Copenhagen, deals with perceptual errors and distortions of time. Her piece Echo adds a wall clock to Bernd Oppl’s work—a clock that has neither a dial nor hands, but rather leads us into a parallel world in which time is perceived as something that cannot be measured.

berndoppl.net/en/work/no-future/
elisabethmolin.com/

A grounded giant—stripped of its original purpose—appears among densely overgrown vegetation. Once a repository of fossil energy, its form has now become a passageway. The closer one gets to the monster, the more clearly vague noise and sound variations become audible and palpable. Our perspective is circumscribed by its shape: The vegetation is constricted in this tunnel vision. It appears as a distant glimpse of freedom, yet the incipient rhythm restrains the inmates. The interior walls vibrate; from between industrial beats audible liquids and objects mold the arrangement into a dystopian collage that gives the installation a sense of artificiality. In the midst of these idyllic surroundings, the foreign object takes on an ambivalent position: well camouflaged, the object appears as if it has been forgotten here—neglected—nearly reclaimed by nature. On the other hand, we hear an auditory energy—the object pulsates to its own frequency, clearly delimits itself from its surroundings. The result is a technological foreign body—forgotten, dormant, yet droning an incessant beat.

Mixed media—double-walled steel tank, four tactile transducers, four mobile amplifiers, sound collage 06:34—loop

Founded in 2010 by Marlene Hirtreiter (born 1983 in Schliersee/Germany) & Andre Mayr (born 1989 in Haag/Austria), the artist collective “Dekonstrukt” operates at the interface between transmedia art and experimental design; they are currently based in Bern, Switzerland.

studio-dekonstrukt.at/

Roughly equal upright prisms, made of peculiarly cored larch logs, burned, brushed and oiled, mark the corners of an equilateral triangle—a small, sloping field in a grove. The piece was commissioned by Bertran Conrad-Eybesfeld, who aptly titled the floating triptych Dreifeld. Artificial elements interact synergistically with organic growth. In addition to evoking the name Eybesfeld, this field also makes associations to a broad physical concept, the bearer of diverse reciprocal effects: Everyday perception becomes a concentrated reference to essential constants of sculptural design—body, space, light, and movement. The (infinite) wholeness of this “ritual site,” the change constantly celebrated (here), cannot be captured by a snapshot alone.

gregorpokorny.com/

Using the feeling for sound he had acquired after fourteen years as a musician, Max Neuhaus began creating sound artworks that were neither music nor events, and coined the term ‘sound installation’ to describe them. In these works, which have neither beginning nor end, sounds are contextualized spatially rather than temporally. The ambient sounds form the ‘canvas’ onto which Max Neuhaus applies color through sound.

Upon entering the soundscape, the listener is instantly immersed in the sound and transported to a new realm of perception. When he leaves the space, the sound ends as though it had never existed at all.

The basic premise of Neuhaus’ work is that the perception of space, its dimensions and character, is as much influenced by acoustic factors as by visual ones. The ear is no less crucial than the eye in determining how we perceive space. As a matter of principle, Neuhaus’s work is subtle: he generally uses soft sounds that can often only be perceived subliminally. Sounds on the threshold of audibility, mingling with and transforming the everyday sounds of the environment.

Max Neuhaus was born in Texas in 1939 and died in 2009. He was a US experimental musician, pioneer of sound art, graphic designer and author.

On one of the islands of the castle park, Swiss artist Philipp Rahm has brought time to a standstill—or rather, he has eliminated the seasons. Six huge smart-spotlights are able to store the light conditions on a given day and emit exactly enough light on the remaining 364 days to keep the light intensity constant from day to day. An area of about 200 m² is kept at the same temperature all year round. The independent existence of this area thus becomes a work of art.

Philippe Rahm, born in Switzerland in 1967, is an architect and artist. His work expands the field of architecture from the physiological to the meteorological.

www.philipperahm.com/

Sol LeWitt is among the founders of minimal and conceptual art. This form of art emphasizes the idea behind the artwork. This is often achieved by reducing all of the artwork’s components.

Sol LeWitt’s piece consists of a quarter sphere and a half cone made of basalt that invite visitors to complete them in their thoughts. The half cone is submerged in the ground; the surrounding landscape of the castle park makes the work appear none too powerful. Only the change of perspective that occurs when descending into the piece reveals its true size, with a total height of 10 meters and a length of 25 meters.

The work was developed during Sol LeWitt’s stay at Eybesfeld Castle. The realization, which took over a year to complete, was carried out together with the architect Konrad Frey.

Sol LeWitt was born in Connecticut in 1928 and died in 2007.

The concept behind this project was to install 183 vertical steel cables, spaced two to three meters apart, along the facade of the Glycinienhof. Wisteria would be planted at the base of each cable and measurements of its growth were to form the basis for a musical composition—the voice of the building.

The project could not be realized, however, as the wisteria grew seven meters within the first year alone, making it impossible to achieve the desired gradations.

Sonja Gangl describes her work as follows:

“The artistic concept begins after the architectural objectives have been established and elaborated. The concept of overgrowth is fundamental to both the architecture and the client. The dynamics and the tension inherent in the growth process, the care for the individual plants, as well as the multi-stage recording, designation, securing, and evaluation of the events comprises my arrangement—is my intervention in this essentially completed project, and expands this inherently intriguing whole.”

Sonja Gangl, born in 1965 in Graz, is a visual artist. Gangl studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Markus Prachensky and at the University of Applied Arts Vienna under Ernst Caramelle. She has been a member of the Vienna Secession since 2003.

www.sonjagangl.com

This sculpture originated with Graz’s tenure as Cultural Capital in 2003, where it was positioned at one of the city’s highway exits. It now stands alone, as a sign, as a affirmation, as a foundation, and is reflected in one of the castle ponds, the “Island Pond.” Placed at the lower right edge of the castle park, it suggests a painter’s signature below his painting, thereby elevating the castle park and its sculptures to the status of a Gesamtkunstwerk. The four letters stand for themselves and need no further interpretation. The sculpture was designed by LOVE architecture; its placement was chosen together with lighting architect Klaus Pokorny.

www.love-home.com/

Das Eichhörnchen was conceived by LOVE architecture for Graz’s tenure as Cultural Capital in 2003. At the time, the squirrel’s waving tail greeted guests at one of the highway exits to Graz. Today it is located in the northeast corner of the castle park, where it now waves to the visitors passing along Schlossstrasse. The squirrel has meanwhile been named Bruno.

www.love-home.com/

Eybesfeld Castle was first surveyed in 1825 for the Franciscan Cadastre, the first complete register of all properties in the monarchy. Michael Schuster borrowed the first letters and had them reproduced as they appeared on the map—to scale and in the same position—using oak posts.

The work takes the power of symbolism a step further. Eybesfeld, the family name (the “i” was changed to “y”), Eibesfeld the castle, Eybesfeld the place, Eybesfeld the word, Eybesfeld the artwork, and finally Ei for Eiche, the German word for oak. All the same, and yet also not the same.

Michael Schuster, born in 1956 in Graz, is an artist whose photographic and installation work addresses the various layers of transmitted information, revealing meta-levels and references in the process. Taking pictorial invention as his theme, Michael Schuster focuses on the mechanical processes underlying imagery as well as the investigation of myths and oral traditions.

The art project Zachariasflug was carried out in the Eybesfeld castle park in 1992. The work of the Russian artist Vadim Zakharov can be seen as an intervention that leaves the surface untouched, yet covertly takes possession of the castle park. At 101 surveyed points throughout the castle park, guests were asked to look in a specific direction while the artist circled the castle park three times in an airplane. As they did so, they stood on diskettes, still buried to this day, which contained texts from the Book of Zechariah.

The project is represented by a plaque outside the castle park featuring an excerpt from the correspondence between the castle’s owner, Bertran Conrad-Eybesfeld, and the artist.

Vadim Zakharov, born in 1959 in Dushanbe/UdSSR, is a Russian performance artist who has been called the “archivist of Moscow Conceptualism” and belongs to the Moscow Conceptualists. He lives and works in Berlin and Moscow.

www.vadimzakharov.com/

Heimo Zobernig, in collaboration with Ferdinand Schmatz, realized an outdoor sculpture in the castle park. He replaced a former tennis court, of which only vague outlines remained, with a 15 cm high concrete slab occupying exactly the surface area of a tennis court. A piece that is laden with historical references to modern sculpture and its fate.

The front edge of the slab features the following inscription in German, rendered in capital letters in Helvetica typeface: “This concrete slab was conceived by Heimo Zobernig for Christine and Bertran Conrad-Eybesfeld and realized in spring 1990. Dixit Ferdinand Schmatz. Tillmitsch Concrete Pouring.”

The concrete slab has all the requisite virtues of a minimalist modern sculpture. The pour was made without joints, a decision that took the subsequent formation of cracks into account. This allowed the nature of the material to be displayed openly while avoiding the grid pattern that would have technically been necessary for a smooth surface. The inscription shifts away from a purely formal analysis and towards an indexing of the conditions of the artwork’s realization: It names the parties to the commission, the collaboration with Ferdinand Schmatz, and the origin of the building material.

The use of the Latin term “dixit” makes reference to the feudal tradition of patronage and to the location—a castle—thus placing the piece in the context of the Institutional Critique work of Daniel Buren or Hans Haacke.

Heimo Zobernig, born in 1958 in Mauthen, Carinthia, lives and works in Vienna. His work is characterized by a reduced formal language that often has a tradesman-like character. It continually questions the framework conditions that surround art.

Ferdinand Schmatz, born in 1953 in Korneuburg/Lower Austria, studied German literature and language as well as history. He publishes poetry and essays and lives as a freelance writer in Vienna.

www.heimozobernig.com/

The creation of a new entrance road in 2009 was also the brainchild of Adrian Geuze of West 8. Instead of driving directly from the street to the castle as before, the new 800-meter-long Schlossstrasse makes a romantic detour through the park, allowing visitors to slowly discover the castle entering through the old gate to arrive at the castle courtyard.

The castle park is crossed by a main axis that opens onto an avenue of linden trees at the northern entrance gate. The staircase forms the centerpiece of a second axis that leads from the castle down to the Lassnitz River.

Paths form the park’s nervous system, giving the park its structure. The past years have seen the construction of a three-kilometer-long system of paths, which consists of five north-south and three east-west axes.

Footbridges and platforms invite friends and guests to linger. Wooden walkways have been constructed at two ponds.