Elisabeth Schafzahl :
Gutenbrunnerpark in Baden

The media sculpture "Be-sitz-objekt" stands outdoors, in the grass next to a path. It is shaped like a bench to sit on, reduced to a concrete ashlar. Three monitors have been mounted into it which are each connected to a camera. This camera documents the object in its immediate surroundings. The visitor can see a part of reality in real-time. Automatically, one also sees oneself. One is obviously sitting on a public bench but at the same time one is also in private, with drawn and alone. I can observe myself and ask how I am. In the process time is extended and measured differently: one does need time. For the philosopher Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno it is necessary for modern art to generally be inaccessible to the public, as it otherwise would no longer have an enlightening effect. Art can only speak the truth by refusing to do so. However, it is a very eloquent form of silence, a logic of form and of material. As a result of this withdrawal the artist is able to evade this blindness. This way art becomes so reduced, assuming an enigmatic character, the truth lies deciphered, concealed within the artwork. Truth stages itself. Elisabeth Schafzahl’s "Be-sitz-objekt" seeks to become a place of leisure, a place where time can be gained – which certainly demands time for itself as well. This in itself is like a riddle: as the question arises as to how time can actually "become more" or generally assume a different quality.
(Eugen-Maria Schulak)