Heinz Cibulka :
Meditation Walkway For Ladendorf

The Meditation Walkway in Ladendorf takes the format of "photographic poetry", with which Heinz Cibulka wrote photo history. Four 13cm x 18cm colour photographs industrially processed in a standard lab are arranged on a box to leave a narrow cross between them. Numerous cycles of photos were produced according to this principle, whereby the images are of a personal forensic nature, engaging with various cultural contexts, with the landscape, with everyday or religious rituals and with folkloric phenomena.
The path begins at the local church and leads through a sunken road past vineyards and orchards on a hill, from where there is a good view of the village and its surroundings. Panels with modest architectural features reminiscent of the traditional wayside shrines have been erected at nine stations. Cibulka's affection for the countryside is demonstrated in the contrast between his famous and moving tribute to the Weinviertel region completed in 1977 with current photographs and text montages showing an unconventional approach to writing that provides an associative and richly pointed depiction of life on the land. Processuality and participation have always played a key role in the work of Heinz Cibulka. Here he now suggests activities like walking and striding, drawing comparisons and intensive observation: he had flowers and herbs planted that heighten the sensual experience, and with this the powers of conscious perception. His consideration for the apparently insignificant captures people, objects and situations in their local environment in a manner that shows things that remain concealed from a gaze on everyday life.
(Brigitte Huck)