The installation of complex form takes place before the eyes of the viewer, evoking images reminiscent of musical scores, architectural plans or scientific diagrams.
Since a month ago, visitors to the baroque Karlskirche church in Vienna can see inside the temple unusual sculpturewhich is like an interlaced linear form total length of 700 meters designed and executed by a British conceptual artist and sculptor Serit Win Evans.
Suspended light installation, measuring 25 by 15 metersbears the name Forms through folds (ascending)and it is specially adapted to the interior of the church. It represents one of the greatest, but also the most challenging works of this creator from Wales, given that it is created from neon tubes.
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Modern art in a baroque temple
Evans' public installation represents the second significant project by a contemporary artist in the program Karlskirche Contemporary Artswhich was launched in 2018 to make the church designed by an Austrian architect Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach connected with modern art.
This recognizable initiative has already received i international recognitionand after installation Aerocene Argentine artist Thomas Saracenwhich adorned the church in the period from 2019 to 2020.
14 kilometers of rope and 1.5 kilometers of cable
The current installation is a space-specific sculpture that is very carefully created and mounted inside the church.
Its installation required the installation of over 14 kilometers of rope and 1.5 kilometers of cable to position it 350 individual glass forms and how to supply them adequately.
With a total weight of over one ton, the installation hangs stably, extending almost over the entire space covered by the dome.
With a total weight of over one ton, the installation hangs stably, spanning almost the entire space covered by the dome.
Serit Win Evans is famous for using white neon lights in his works, which he uses as a language of signs and spatial drawings.
His light works reflect the synthesis of different, seemingly opposing ideologies from literature, philosophy, religion, art and natural sciences.
These elements are they meet, replicate and intertwine through complex structures that at the same time seem to be expand and collapse explosively into delicate entropy.
This is how this installation of its complex form unfolds before the eyes of the beholderevoking images reminiscent of musical scores, architectural plans or scientific diagrams.
An ode to the unique building and its fresco
With over 200,000 visitors per yearthe Karlskirche is one of the most visited attractions of the capital of Austriaand the new installation will offer visitors a special experience of staying in this baroque space.
“Being able to present contemporary art in this way in a sacred space that liturgically used for centuriesis not only unique in Austria, but also internationally. The new installation is an ode to this unique building and its domed fresco, considering that it alludes to all heavenly and transcendent things“, he said to Designboom curator Moric Stipšic.
Presenting contemporary art in this context aims to encourage engagement with place in its secular and spiritual functions.
“Karlskirche is one of the most important examples sacral baroque architecture in Central Europe. Of course, as a significant Catholic church, it is a place of religious community and prayer. Yet we also see her as a place of meeting and dialoguewith God and of course with people. Presenting contemporary art in this context aims to encourage engagement with the place in its secular and spiritual functions,” added Father Marek Pučalik.
