Physical States

The first work that discussed the forms of zooplankton being researched was realised under water by Miriam Roseane Nascimento Duarte, Hanife Tepegöz and Claudia Maria Del Cid Calderon directly on or under water beneath the lakeside stage. The project Plankton consisted of three tyres filled with a fluorescent liquid that changed shade between pink and orange according to the light conditions (artificial lighting at night and sunlight by day). The plankton sculptures floated sedately in the lake, each approximately six metres in size. Zooplankton at its biggest, a morphed translation, inflated, radiated and displayed. 

A beautiful project that engaged with the ecological technology involved with the work, the observation and research at and in the lake was the Hölzerne Insel (Wooden Island) by Erika Banyayova, Javier Rufat Lopez and Luka Murovec. The forested surroundings gather on the lake in heavy rain and storms in the form of driftwood. This artificial island put an end to the drifting. It collected the driftwood, having been pulled out to sea by boat and anchored on the lake bed. This island was visited as a place of shaded refuge during the summer by the juvenile fish and minnows. At the same time ducks and herons also used the island as a place to sleep and catch fish.

A further works engages with microorganisms: with Waterstars Octopus Christian Fries made illuminated spherical bodies float like buoys to magnify the lake's inhabitants in different stages of their development, making them visible to the naked eye on the surface of the lake. 

The project Schw[a]emme (Sponges/Watering Place) by Barbara Heier, Barbara Sima and Claudia Sohm found a suitable location between the trees on the shore of the lake. They played with the link between water and shore landscape: industrial fungus sucks up water like its natural namesake. A new form of life that has crawled from the bathroom into the wilderness. Basins that were kept running by the lake water climbed up the shoreside trees like fungus. The sculpture was powered by solar panels, as was Weinender Baum. The quantity of water involved varied according to the weather. 

A further works engages with microorganisms: The project Planktopien (Planktopias) by Stefanie Jehrlich and Anika Johanna Schaffer made the microorganisms mutate and walk on land. They hung as transparent silhouettes in the trees of the lakeside promenade. A large window was opened, and the public could see the lake through the plankton's eyes

This work was also a quotation that alluded to the value of the water and its management in times of global water shortage, its examination and use: David Krottmayer, Nina Kuess and Alexander Poschner made a tree cry — a beautiful and poetic work on the grounds of the Lunz lakeside bathing facility, a Weinender Baum (Crying Tree) from the crown of which magical rain begins to sparkle in the sunshine: a fountain, a natural performance. 

With their lake-magnifying work Loupes Barbara Steindl and Barbara Wölfl realised their aim of stopping and appealing to the general public — i.e. beyond staff at the research laboratory. Users of the lake are provided with vast magnifying glasses with which they can explore the surface of the water or cast a glance into the depths of the unknown realm of the lake. Large tyres that glowed as they swayed and floated on the surface of the lake. 

Thomas Untersweg and Stefan Schmoll represented the principle of reproduction and dissemination with their work Lake[de]Lights. These were small lighting objects that could be taken from the public space into private space — colourful summer greetings from magnetic fireflies. The magnets with LED diodes were attached to the ramp of the lakeside stage. By day only visible as colourful dots, they made their host glow by night. The miniature sculptures, which glowed for up to three weeks, quickly vanished from their original location and were soon to be found in the town of Lunz and in private space, and as far afield as Vienna or Graz. 

With their Wassersäulen (Water Columns) — which lifted the water out of the sea, bubbling into sight above the surface of the water at the WasserKluster mooring — Antonia Nakova and Michaela Siesz literally integrated an allusion to the work at the research station in their work. Does water look like that when we raise it above the surface in a column? 

The conclusion of the tour around the lake was provided by Hans Kupelwieser's contribution Font du Lac: a bubbling fountain that broke out in a small bay on the forested bank of the lake, visible from the lake, by boat or swimming, or almost hidden from the shore. A watery bright spot. The fountains were fed from the waters of the current running above the lake. A homage to the lake: wild waters, or is it a pacified cultural landscape?