Christian Hutzinger
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Artistic Concept For the Lagerhaus Silo in Zellerndorf
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Christian Hutzinger used the grain silo as an orientation point. Most of a row of Coloured circles each three metres in diameter running around the top of the silo are adorned with white letters. They reads STS and TNO on two the narrow sides, and RDWE and ÜDOS on the wider sides. Only if looked at over two sides of a corner does it give the four points of the compass: OST (East), NORD (North), WEST and SÜD (South).
The Lagerhaus silos are the secret skyscrapers of the Austrian provinces. No other type of building dominates the Austrian flatlands like the many vast grain silos in the communities of Lower Austria. Even before villages come into sight these concrete giants can be seen reaching into the sky. The Viennese artist Christian Hutzinger avails himself of just such a silo — employing it as a signpost and, at a second glance, for orientation. Vast circles with a diameter of three metres each entwine the upper end of the silo concerned. The surfaces are filled with colour and adorned with apparently random combinations of letters on the narrow sides, STS and TNO, while the two wider sides carry the letters RDWE and ÜDOS at a great height. What is happening here? One has to peer around the corner of the masonry: cars follow the curves of the roads, approaching the silo from different directions. The four colours finally provide the decisive clue: the names of the four points of the compass are painted over the corners — confusion and orientation. The simple intervention on the surface of the building allows the silo to be understood in the context of its setting. Instead of an ugly point in the village it is transformed into a compass sized XXL. A pointed motif at a height of 58 metres.
(Wojciech Czaja)
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