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Günter Wolfsberger :
Drahtsicht

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Schönberg am Kamp, 2016
Kalvarienberg, 3562 Schönberg am Kamp

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If you look closely while walking through the vineyards, you can find seedlings here and there, covered with screens to protect them from hungry rodents. At the edge of the vineyard, old grape vines are piled up like macabre heaps of bones. Next to them lie the old wooden supports for the shoots and grapes, rotting away. Rusted wire in rolls and chaotic knots, wrapped in remainders of vine tendrils, are also stored there.

The method of supporting vines has evolved in the many years that this vineyard has been cultivated. The special thread that was originally used has long faded away, while the plastic bands and colorful clips seem all the more stubborn and unable to decompose. Looking like an unearthed fossil, Wolfsberger’s coils of wire embedded in concrete present these artefacts in a way that leaves us with the feeling that many more coils are concealed inside, preserved for eternity. The amorphous rings of wire, with the organic corkscrew-like wine tendrils entangled on them, cannot shake the appearance of an archeological find. The art object Drahtsicht (Wire View) got its name from its position on a slope of the Kalvarienberg, which offers a marvelous view of the landscape, including the Alpine foothills. The concrete block was carefully placed on a protected plot.

If we walk a few meters up the Kalvarienberg, we can encounter two more art projects that were realized by Public Art Lower Austria in cooperation with the organization Weltklasse! Kunst & Wein, Kunstwege im Kamptal (World Class! Art & Wine, Art Paths in the Kamptal). The first is Sitzplatzskulptur (Seat Sculpture) by Norbert Maringer, completed in 2009, followed by the Mondrohr (Moon Pipe) by Herbert Golser four years later. All three artworks share in common an intense engagement with cultural history and a fascination for the beauty of the surrounding landscape.