Sabine Bitter :
Pfarrgasse in Horn

An essential factor in the artistic design of Pfarrgasse was initially the extraction of the street's own characteristics from within the ensemble, freeing it from the current furniture in order to then adorn it with apostrophes and re-insert it within the overall image as 'Pfarrgasse'. The symbolic character of the two objects supports the street's special qualities, enticing one’s gaze into it, or pointing beyond the street itself from within. The slim flat piece of wall binds the street to the ensemble that comprises the Pestsäule (Plague Column) and Sparkassenplatz, and has a direct relationship to a meandering hedge seating arrangement (40m of coniferous yew hedge) which forms a zone of calm and a place to stop, serving as street furniture in the middle of the flow of traffic and pedestrians. With the formal relationship to baroque garden layouts, the Pestsäule, the architecture of the square and the character of Pfarrgasse continue the historical correspondence to sgraffitti facades in the same vein. The two objects (concrete elements clad in stainless steel) in the approach zone to the street accentuate its historic character. The first wall element can be used at a practical height as a surface for posters announcing cultural events, its counterpart at the other end of the street, slightly curved, provides the cinema with the opportunity to announce its programme on the inside of the curve, while on the outside it is available for 'pictorial' representative planting. The project was recommended for completion by the jury, although it was not subsequently realised.
(Sabine Bitter)