Hubert Lobnig, Iris Andraschek :
Mosaic carpets

Andraschek & Lobnig have transformed the Forum Campus Krems into a marketplace. 21 carpets are spread across the courtyard. These carpets have been set into the concrete, lie on the lawn, nest in the buildings, or slip under the glass façade, running on inside. The material used for the carpets, small Venetian enamelled tiles, combines a classical technique, that of the mosaic, with the pixel world of the computer and the symbolic composition of early-Christian mosaics with oriental and Far Eastern cultures. The carpets have been set flush with the surface like precious inlay, functioning as a relaxed ornament on the square. The carpets are based on ones found by the artists with the Berbers, Kurds and Tibetans. Andraschek & Lobnig draw an analogy between the Oriental culture of hospitality and the communication with the traditions of the Anglo-Saxon educational establishment, the tradition of debating and discussion, which is made possible by living together on a campus. "With the idea of using carpets from different cultures we wanted to emphasise the international nature of the new university architecture, the faculties and the users of the university, and to focus on science, education and intellectuality as an all-embracing uniting factor in promoting understanding."
(Brigitte Huck)