Whilst Fritz Wotruba opens up and expands the human form to new abstract dimensions, and Thomas Stimm’s Terranian Platform forms a gathering point on Earth. Heimo Zobernig, o.T., 2003, Photo: Michael Schuster, 2005 Industrially manufactured concrete construction rings, lined up like a tower, provide an obvious setting for questioning the relationship between art, people and the environment. Heimo Zobernig positions a sculpture that can be seen from afar right at the first lawn pyramid in the park. The palette ranges from anthropomorphic sculptures to furniture sculptures and with that, integration into the world of work through to conceptual, computer-generated, or linguistic works. Classical materials like stone, bronze or marble are used here, as well as concrete, glass, plastic, polystyrene, mirrors, steel, scraps, and cotton wool. The history of sculpture since classical modernism is shown, negotiated and further developed in the park with more than 75 permanent and temporary works that change yearly. A large grassy landscape with extraordinary magnolias is followed by a maze as one of the oldest cutltural-historiacal motifs. An oversized metal rose by Rudi Molacek addresses transformation in and between nature and technology. In the garden of roses and perennials that references French garden, a bronze waterfall by Brian Hunt results in both a dynamic response, and makes up stop in our tracks. Standing in the middle of them is the oldest sculpture in the park, Herbert Boeckl’s Atlantis from 1940/44. Cloud formations can be read in the trimmed yew figures, which reference the Baroque period. Here a mirror reflects the celestial image that surrounds us and identifies us as beings in a parallel universe. Next, we see a mysteriously hidden slope of lawn where imaginably, ancient forest deities dwell. Here we find sculptures that were created in an exploration of the body, bodily mutability, displacements and changes of perspective. This part is followed by a tapering stairway construction, the stairway to heaven, as a reference to our connection to places beyond Earth and the effects of the invention of central perspective in the Renaissance. Nancy Rubins, Airplane Parts & Hills, 2003, Photo: Michael Schuster, 2008 In its centre we are able to linger at the sculpture made of furniture surrounding a tree made by Peter Kogler, which brings nature and art together. Surrounded by high beech hedges, a unique, calming lotus blossom pond opens up with the contemplative centre of the island referencing art that would have been found in ancient Egyptian gardens. In the garden of the pheasant, Kienast cites the history of garden landscaping since ancient times and, whilst reflecting the minimalism of the 1960s, stages special garden spaces. Erwin Wurm, Fat Car, 2000/2001, Photo: Michael Schuster, 2003 Special plants such as lady’s mantle, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips and a lime tree alter our perceptions of the surroundings with their fragrance and changing colours. New lines of sight are opened up, as is the game between expansion and seclusion. We enter an extraordinary and unique terrain, where we find grass pyramids that contour the landscape, a geometric water lily pond with lily pads and a purposely selected café, cherry trees, lavender bushes or find pieces of grass structured by bamboo. The landscape architect, Dieter Kienast, used a four-metre-high grass bank as a border in order to protect the area. In the garden on the hill we find ourselves in an area once used for quarrying gravel, which has since been turned into a swimming pool and a large-scale recreational facility. Some of the works incorporate light, shadow, water or air, evolving as they grow or interacting with us. We come across contemporary sculptures, from the abstract, to found or compacted objects. In the garden of man-made nature, we are specially invited to the Austrian Sculpture Park, to engage in a dialogue about the sculptures that are integrated into the landscape. A relationship of change develops, which permanently alters the retelling of history over the course of time. When sculptures and nature come together, they react to each other.
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