Josef Danner
:
Installation in the Government District
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The two-stage competition provided the background to the artistic intervention in St. Pölten, for which seven artworks by Austrian artists were recommended for realisation. These projects are by Josef Danner, Bruno Gironcoli, Richard Hoeck, Hans Kupelwieser, Christoph Steffner, Thomas Stimm and Heimo Zobernig. Five commissions for interiors were awarded directly, to Gunter Damisch, Franz Graf, Brigitte Kowanz, Eva Schlegel and Walter Vopava. The winning project in a separate competition for the design of the chapel (1995) is by Arnulf Rainer. Additional existing artworks by Franz Xaver Ölzant, Oskar Putz and Ruth Schnell are also to be found in the Regierungsviertel. Works by Dara Birnbaum and Michelangelo Pistoletto, also selected by the first jury, are not realized.
In his 'Fragmentarischer Bericht aus Monopolyland' (Fragmentary Report from Monopolyland) published in 1992, Josef Danner dealt with the "anger of having to channelize the deluge of information, to bring personal order to the signs, demands, instructions, commands, etc., to let the overly full brain let off steam, as it were". (Josef Danner) After this he developed plans for outdoor projects. In connection with the competition the jury selected this poster project. Its showing is limited to three years (1996-99) and the posters (10 billboards in the government district) are changed every three months. With his project Josef Danner wanted to achieve something essentially mobile and envisioned other venues in Lower Austria. To date, however, this has not been possible. With his play on language and imagery, Danner wanted to point the "...simplistic stupidities of the zeitgeist on a more general 'philosophical' level" and to reveal them. Textual and pictorial elements have been combined so that the reader is annoyed if not completely at a loss. Aloof of well-founded norms, motives can be repeated, appearing on a different pictorial wall in yet a different context: "Extreme periods demand extreme archievements. Become an extremist!" Or: "What is lacking is a museum for madness system in progress and the time to visit it."
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