Linz is Going on a Viewing Spree
Part 1 of the “Art in the City!!” series of exhibitions premieres on May 11. The OK Center for Contemporary Art and Linz09 are transforming downtown Linz into an alfresco art gallery.
Shop windows, display cases and building façades provide novel settings for art. The inner city becomes an art space; shopkeepers serve as mediators of the public’s encounter with these works; shoppers and passers-by turn into strolling visitors to an unexpected exhibition.“Schaurausch” (Viewing Spree), the first project to give Linz09 a tangible presence in the cityscape, is being curated by Swiss art critic Paolo Bianchi and OK Director Martin Sturm. Artists from Austria and abroad have been invited to create dramatic interventions in downtown retailers’ shop windows. These urban installations include a book sculpture as waterfall, a several-meter-tall figure of a dog consisting of 3,000 little stuffed animals, and creatures made of plastic bags.
It all goes on public display on May 11. Websites have been set up to provide details of the opening weekend programme as well as to let the public follow the making of “Schaurausch” all the way up to the big premiere.
