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26/6/2002

CAT

Arenbergpark antiaircraft tower, Wien

CAT - Contemporary Art Tower

Peter Noever / Sepp Müller / Michael Embacher

heavens gift
A new programmatic strategy for the presentation of contemporary art

After New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, and Berlin, the CAT (Contemporary Art Tower) project is now presented at its destination, Viennas Arenbergpark antiaircraft tower, in the exhibition heavens gift for the first time. With their CAT project, Peter Noever, Sepp Müller, and Michael Embacher have developed a programmatic architectural strategy that comes up to the complex requirements of todays artistic production. An architectural model (1:50, concrete, acrylic, light), design sketches, realization plans, as well as a supplementary program will outline the CAT project and present it to the Viennese public.

Because of its outside walls that have a thickness of up to five meters, the Arenbergpark antiaircraft tower has proved as indestructible as the other flak towers in Vienna, Hamburg, and Berlin. So the gigantic monolithic volume, a relic of the Nazi regime and its total war, still dominates the cityscape around the park in Viennas 3rd district.

By opening this hitherto functionless place to and integrating it in the urban and social life of Vienna, the CAT designers Noever, Mueller, and Embacher aim at redefining the alienness of the building by placing it in a contemporary architecture and art context. The realization of the project involves only minimal interference in the existing massive substance of the volume which will be countered by the slender construction of a media and supply tower on the south side. A crucial aspect of the project is opening the bulky mass by means of new media.

One of the nine floors of the Arenbergpark flak tower, which is situated not far from the MAK, has already been adapted on a provisional basis and is used by the MAK as a depot for presenting important parts of its contemporary art collection.

The CAT project, developed against the background of this space already in operation, will provide contemporary artists with an opportunity to produce works on site that relate to the specific context of the antiaircraft tower. The main concern of the CAT project is not the acquisition of existing works but the realization of artistic positions within the building in question. A living space and a kitchen as informal meeting places will facilitate these processes. By not only presenting the art works to the public but by also making the steps of their production accessible, CAT will become an environment that promotes direct dialogue between the artists working there and the visitors of the space. This form of exchange will be the basis for a laboratory of arts plumbing the depths of contemporary positions in a new approach. The collection created this way will be unique for Vienna.

The plans comprise exhibition spaces, areas for commercial use and events, as well as an auditorium. Jenny Holzer and James Turrell have developed artistic interventions for the tower which will become permanent elements of the buildings architectural structure.

ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS
The New York artist Jenny Holzer, who, with her Electronic Signs, occupies a crucial position within the development of international art, has worked out a special concept that constitutes a further stage of her media art endeavors. A search light will be mounted on top of the media and supply tower to draw public attention to current CAT activities and events by means of laser. In addition, texts and images will be projected from the upper levels of the construction onto the immediate vicinity of the bunker: these light texts will convey specific information concerning the current program within the construction. The intervention was inspired by Vladimir Tatlins concept for his Monument to the III International (1919-20). Jenny Holzer is mainly interested in the bunker as a medium for transmitting art, information, and news, as an urban center for communicating both facts and ideas.

James Turrell, based in Flagstaff (Arizona), envisions the construction of a circular Skyspace serving as a bar on one of the four platforms of the antiaircraft tower. This bar is to give visitors an unobstructed view of the sky through a ceiling opening with a diameter of approximately 4 m. Like in the Skyspace that the artist designed for his MAK exhibition the other horizon in 1998, people will be able to perceive the space between heaven and earth as a materialized field of color and experience the normally unfathomable distance as overcome. For the openings in the outside walls of the flak tower, James Turrell has planned a blue light intervention - a measure that responds to the outer light conditions, to the urban space.

A comprehensive supplementary program for the Arenbergpark antiaircraft tower is being prepared for the time from 29 May to 7 November 2002: the program titled CAT Open will comprise roundtables, lectures, and a number of further events involving contemporary artists. James Turrell will speak about his work for the CAT project in the MAK Lecture Hall at 8.00 p.m. on Monday, 24 June 2002.

On the occasion of the presentation of heavens gift, Jenny Holzer will show a selection of her series Xenon Projections. From 25 to 28 June 2002, texts from her Truisms will be projected onto the Neulinggasse side of the Arenbergpark flaktower from 9.00 p.m. to 1.00 a.m. The artist questions the commonplace sentences by simply presenting them the sequential way she does.

The presentation will be opened by Elisabeth Gehrer, Federal Minister of Education, Science and Culture, and Michael Häupl, Mayor of Vienna. At the opening, Cornelius Grupp, member of the CAT International Advisory Board, will introduce the CAT project, while James Turrell will comment on his artistic interventions and Peter Noever will outline the programmatic and architectural CAT strategy. Anwar S. Shamuzafarov, head of the Russian State Construction Committee, will be present as a guest of honor.

Press preview Tuesday, 25 June 2002, 6.30 p.m.

Opening Tuesday, 25 June 2002, 7.30 p.m.

Opening hours from Thursday to Sunday 3.00 - 7.00 p.m.

Admission 3.30 - or same day admission ticket to the MAK

Lecture Monday, 24 June 2002, 8.00 p.m.: James Turrell: Platos cave and the light within, MAK Lecture Hall, Weiskirchnerstraße 3, 1010 Vienna, admission: 8. - / reduced: 4. , for reservations please call (+43-1) 711 36-297

Projection Jenny Holzer: Special Xenon Projection for CAT, 25 - 28 June 2002

Supplementary program
CAT Open, 29 May - 7 November 2002, in preparation Catalog heavens gift. A new programmatic strategy for the presentation of contemporary art, ed. by Peter Noever, MAK, English and German editions, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000, 2001 Guided tours Saturdays at 5.00 p.m.

MAK Press Office Martina Wachter, Malou Thilges
phone: (+43-1) 711 36-233
fax: (+43-1) 711 36-227
e-mail: presse@MAK.at

Arenbergpark antiaircraft tower,
upper floor Dannebergplatz /
Barmherzigengasse, 1030 Vienna

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