Music and sound composed by the elements of nature: in the unique garden artwork TAUTÖNE by artist Katinka Bock, water and place unite to create natural minimal music. The flag installation by Eisenstadt artist Peter Pongratz, with his painting “Spring Song”, brings the “Eternal Spring” to life through changing winds and thus - in keeping with the festival motto “Seduction” - carries it visibly and audibly through the four seasons.
There are two special works of art flanking this year's HERBSTGOLD festival: you can look at them and walk around them, but depending on the wind or rain, they will also resound and sound, because their music is composed by the weather. One sculpture is by Peter Pongratz and consists of eleven flags that will rattle or flutter with the changing winds. The other sculpture is by Katinka Bock and is located in the stream in Eisenstadt Castle Park. It will make its fine music resound in the rain or dew. Both art installations will be officially opened as part of the opening parade “Festzug in den Garten” on September 11, 2024 at 5 pm.
“Music does not necessarily require musicians. Music is also created independently through every movement. For example, through the lapping of the waves on the beach, the buzzing of insect wings, the wind in the grass, the pattering of the rain. The whole world is sound. With this year's motto 'Seduction', we are taking the audience on a journey through the senses, whether at a concert or at the exhibitions surrounding the art installations,” says Julian Rachlin, director of the HERBSTGOLD festival.
“TAUTÖNE” in the palace gardens of Eisenstadt
“At the time of ancient Greece, people were still convinced that even the distant celestial bodies continuously produced sounds. Their uniform orbital movements in the spheres, which were imagined as transparent spheres, were sufficient for this. Together, the planetary movements produced an ideal music of the spheres and celestial harmony. Today, however, the musical movements in the immediate vicinity are more realistic. For example in Eisenstadt Castle Park,” says curator Vitus Weh.
This English landscape park, built on the slopes of the Leitha Mountains from 1803, is criss-crossed by a meandering stream whose water once roared, splashed or gurgled in different ways at various cascades and cliffs. The various reservoirs, pressure pipes, waterfalls, stream beds and cascades are already being successively renovated in order to bring this presumably musically composed work of water art back to life.
One area that has already undergone initial renovations is the bridge cascade located between the palace and the orangery. It formed the edge of an elongated mirror surface that ran parallel to the garden front of the palace. The sound of the water falling from this cascade is in turn amplified by the tunnel vault behind it, as if by a resonating body.
The German-French artist Katinka Bock (*1976 in Frankfurt/Main, lives in Paris) developed the sculpture TAUTÖNE especially for this special location. The curved channel of the artwork was first made of wood and then cast in bronze. At its upper end, the channel is pierced by three large aluminum needles, reminiscent of the neck of a stringed instrument with its tuning pegs. Functionally, the green patinated gutter collects rain and dew, which from time to time will drip or trickle from the lower end into the stream. The sculpture will thus “autopoetically” produce a fine minimal music. In other words, music created by the cycle of nature.
“Spring Song” by Eisenstadt artist Peter Pongratz
The subject of the colorful spring flowers was provided by painter and jazz musician Peter Pongratz (*1940 in Eisenstadt, lives in Vienna and on the island of Korčula). As an artist who is deeply rooted in both the capital and his birthplace, Pongratz will receive an honorary welcome at the HERBSTGOLD - Festival 2024 in Eisenstadt.
The artwork comes from his large-format painting “Spring Song” from 2004, so the flag work is already musically linked to the air of breathing. However, it remains to be seen what audible sounds the blowing winds will produce over the course of the year. In any case, their beauty or weirdness, like that of the flowers, will emerge again and again. In keeping with the HERBSTGOLD festival theme of “Seduction”, the flags will keep “Eternal Spring” visible and audible in summer, fall and winter. Because there is always a beginning in music, even if there is of course also an end.
"There was a phase in my life when I emphasized that I didn't want to paint beautiful pictures. That's not quite true. Of course I want to paint beautiful pictures. I believe that if it's a good painting, it's beautiful. It doesn't matter whether it depicts something ugly or beautiful, good or bad." (Peter Pongratz, 2015)
Opening round KUNST:
Parade into the garden
September 11, from 5 p.m.
Opening parade of the HERBSTGOLD festival
Accompanied by musical acts, you will parade from Peter Pongratz's 11 flags on the forecourt of the palace through the Sala Terrena into the park to the renovated bridge cascade. There, in the cool stream bed, the sculpture TAUTÖNE by artist Katinka Bock will be handed over to its intended purpose as a work of garden art: autopoetic minimal music.
Exhibition openings and guided tours as part of the festival
Sunday, September 15, 2 - 6 p.m.
14:00: Opening of a photo exhibition by Burgenland architect and photographer Nikola Hergovich at Kunstverein Eisenstadt (1st floor / corridor area) in Joseph-Haydn-Gasse 1.
15:00: Opening of the exhibition “Der Nachmittag der Launen” in the Tanzpassage Eisenstadt (passageway in Bankgasse 1-3 & in the foyer of the Hotel Galantha) with installations and two Tondi by Haruko Maeda (*1983 in Tokyo).
16:00: Curator's tour with Vitus Weh to the HERBSTGOLD artworks by Peter Pongratz and Katinka Bock. Meeting point: 11 flags on the forecourt of Esterházy Palace.
17:00: Curator's tour with Monika Georgieva through the current exhibition “not knowing” at Kunstverein Eisenstadt with works by Daniel Fonatti, Thomas Hitchcock, Lone Haugaard Madsen, Alexandra Phillips and Sára Röth.
Further exhibitions in Eisenstadt on September 15, 2024, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Architecture Raumburgenland
“BHP On the road; client:interior and architect:interior create building culture”
Architecture Gallery, Fanny-Elßer-Gasse 4
Provincial Gallery Burgenland
Elfie Semotan “The double view” & Christian Ruschitzka “The Amber Room”
Franz Schubert Square 6
Free SHUTTLEBUS on September 15
Vienna → Eisenstadt → Vienna
Departure: 1 p.m. Karlsplatz 2, Vienna
Return journey: 6 p.m. Schlossplatz Eisenstadt
RSVP office@kunstvereineisenstadt.at