Josef Trattner :
Anlauf. Ansitz, Anstand!

In collaboration with the architect W. Chramosta, the artist Josef Trattner planned the furnishing of outdoor space at 12 places in the government district of St. Pölten. The furniture, taking the form of different coloured seats, benches, stretches of foam rubber are provided for passers-by to use, whether for sitting or lying on, or as food for thought.

The foam rubber installation by Trattner and Chramosta arose from the situation of the St. Pölten Regierungsviertel between the historic city centre and Traisen, just two years after the completion of the former. It may have been appreciable as an important functional unit in the fabric of St. Pölten but it was not really part of the town. This is was where the insertions by Trattner and Chramosta intervened , taking the architecture and the town's structure as the reflection of cultural, political and economic conditions, and so as the departure point for urban development. Only its users and those supporting these sculptures could make the town itself. The undifferentiated zones, i.e. places allotted no specific functions were arenas for this to happen. Trattner and Chramosta intervened in such places.
These interventions represented a questioning of architecture held to be a final piece of work, while also addressing the subject of architecture as an idea manifested in a form. At the same time, also a growing beyond this which occurs when people appropriate the architecture naturally.
'Anlauf. Ansitz, Anstand!' was just such an appropriation of public space. Similarly, the foam rubber installations were also to be seen as a metaphor for the necessary process of urbanisation for the Regierungsviertel by its users and the passers-by.