What Is a Public Space? What Is a Cy-Borg Square?

Sebastian Walther enticed us into the film Brazil by adding the words 'Central Services' to two street sweeping vehicles from Wiener Neustadt, and had speakers on the streets and squares play music from the soundtrack of the classic film. In the science fiction film Brazil (1985) the entire infrastructure is in the hands of the dominant Central Services, the sewage network as much as all household equipment. In doing this, Central Services have access to all aspects of people's lives.

At the opening passers-by witnessed the work Schall und Rauch, die Vertikale und der freie Fall (Noise and Smoke, the Vertical and Free Fall) by Nicole Six and Paul Petritsch. The project by Six and Petritsch lasted only a few minutes and had been motivated and inspired by the almost oppressive satisfaction of the users and decision-makers alike with what they called 'BORG Square', as well as the real and construed history of Wiener Neustadt and the location itself. A light aircraft circled the sky above 'BORG Square' twice while emitting brown smoke. The plane's speed, the audibility, its height and the delineation of the location by a cloudy circle shifted the 'arena' into the centre of attention for a brief spell. Local residents were encouraged to question the unusual goings-on although this 'brief' symbolic gesture was visible from far away. What, though, did Six and Petritsch mean by 'free fall'?

The large-scale sculpture Autobahnkreuz (Motorway Junction) in the Esperantopark by the Berlin artists Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser alluded to the role of the car and its dominant claim to space, and was originally confronted with scepticism and rejection by the young people who use the park as a place to meet. Although Folke Köbberling did succeed in convincing individual youths to help. The work made of wood was situated on the lawn, and represented a cloverleaf motorway interchange in miniature as a walkway. Unfortunately, it only remained in tact for the day of the opening, and was so thoroughly destroyed during the following night that it had to be removed. One cause of the vandalism could, alongside a sceptical reaction to the art project, also have been the lack of suitable space for youths in Wiener Neustadt, a town with several schools.

In the completed project Markus Grabenwöger very directly addressed passers-by with the question 'Is this a square?' to passers-by. His reflection of the entrance to the underground car park was intended as a visual extension of the location.

GirlsOnHorses put up fictitious posters all over the town announcing events that were strikingly similar to local ones, bearing captions like 'the beach runs underneath the image', 'the invisible town begins here', 'insurrection is being organised opposite' ("Unter dem Image, da liegt der Strand", "Hier beginnt die unsichtbare Stadt", "Gegenüber wird Aufruhr inszeniert"). This intervention suggested that a real town staged by cyborgs lay like a net over Wiener Neustadt. A workshop planned with pupils of the BORG on 'Public Space' had to be cancelled due to scheduling difficulties.