as part of bb15
Installation and Performance in public space, 2021
wood, color, 3x4x2 meters

To commemorate their jubilee anniversary in 2022, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) focused on the coming 150 years, i.e. they look edahead to the long term. BOKU’s research into sustainability, resource management and the preservation and protection of the environment and our quality of life forms the starting point for the program series Elementarereignisse. 

This artistic concept of the bb15 curatorial team, which was realised on BOKU’s anniversary year on behalf of BIG ART, revolves around the concepts of disruption, blockage and disaster. Three temporary artistic interventions will be implemented on the university campus. These elementary events are intended to create irritations within everyday structures, thereby generating attention around BOKU’s socially relevant research interests.

The Sperrzeit intervention developed by the bb15 team is the connecting element and central theme of their overall concept. It is a mobile sculpture based on the prototype of a so-called Stahlschneebrücke (steel snow barrier) used in avalanche protection. At first glance, this element might seem out of place in urban space. However, whilst being performatively carried through the Türkenschanze Campus, this context provides new meaning to the problem of the fragmented campus and inner-city traffic (the ‘metal avalanche’). These processions cross the streets around the university campus, disrupting the urban space for a moment.