Birgit Jürgenssen :
Pillar

The entrance hall of the Wiener Neustadt district office is 16 m high and covers a surface area of 100 m2. The artist designed a pillar 8 metres high which stands as a mirror of different regions and a symbolic likeness of the geological development of the Vienna Basin, and thus of the history of the world as a whole, from the beginnings up to modern times. A basic iron construction was covered with a first layer of acrylic glass. This was filled with gravel, sand, rocks and plant material from the Wiener Neustadt region to imitate the different layers of the earth and to mark the different geological stages and rock types typical for them. This acrylic layer was then surrounded by a second layer of a slightly iridescent colour. The pillar is several storeys high and ends with a sloping reflecting surface at the top. This link between the historical and the up-to-date social order is often found in the artist's work. She tries to establish three-way relations between subject, object and social structures. In most cases she uses her own body to project these social orders, in this particular case she has chosen the pillar as a historically symbolic statement, and man's identity becomes the subject of her work of art.
(Cornelia Offergeld)

Architect: Franz Pfeil