Brigitte Kowanz

Salzburg Art Project 2011
BEYOND RECALL by Brigitte Kowanz
Sammlung Würth, Inv. 14934

Based in Vienna, the artist Brigitte Kowanz (*1957) became known for her light installations which she executes in the form of spatial scenarios or as architectural “interventions”. Since 1997 she has been engaged as professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

In her project entitled “Beyond Recall” for the Salzburg Staatsbrücke (or State Bridge), she has intervened in the structure’s architecture judiciously and strikingly in equal measure. Over the bases of the four bridgeheads Kowanz has erected semi-transparent mirror-faced cubes containing neon-lit lettering. “These illuminated characters between the mirrors are simultaneously space-forming elements and information carriers. The space created is without boundaries. Interior and exterior space coalesce. A simultaneity of space and time, lettering, image and sculpture is generated which can be experienced on a sensuous level”, explains the artist.

In memory of the hundreds of prisoners of war and forced labourers, who were compelled to work on the construction of this bridge against their will from 1941 until 1945 and made great sacrifices.