Lisa Holzer :
Stift Geras

The project by Lisa Holzer for the little park in front of Stift Geras consists of three parts, each of which reacts to the existing situation — an enchanted garden: a shelter of reflective stainless steel, a fountain in the form of a gentle mist and the marking of a gate to the herb garden with gold paint. The artist's intention was to open up the park, to animate it and to make it inviting for visitors to interact with the artistic intervention. A simple cubic structure was chosen for the shelter, which is clad on three sides with highly polished stainless steel. Lisa Holzer has conjured up a perpetually changing play between (reflected) images on the forecourt. The architecture recedes and is lent the function of an image-production machine. The hard material quality of the steel is countered by the artificial mist that the artist selected for the fountain. The evaporated water creates a veil that, for its part, changes the visitors' visual perception of the park behind it, continually changing its appearance. The gold paint is eye-catching and draws visitors to the gate, linking it to the gold of the baroque monastery and leading into the garden. As in Mallarmé's poem L'Après-midi d'un faune, the design of the park generates (dream-like) images that illustrate the projections of the visitors.
(Hemma Schmutz)