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 Muller, and Michael Embacher have developed a programmatic architectural strategy that comes up to the complex requirements of todays artistic production.
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