One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

 

kinetic object, 10m x 0,5m

Reinsberg, Lower Austria, 2011

aluminium ladder, iron, steel cable, circuit

 

 

In »One Step Forward, Two Steps Back«, Johanna Tinzl and Stefan Flunger intervene directly in the village's order, as embodied by the church steeple and its clock. They seem to outplay space with time. The new »clockhand«, which originally was to have been attached to the church steeple, is now on a hill that is clearly in line with the steeple. It is a freestanding sculpture, a kinetic object, and a spatial and temporal construct that simulates a concrete situation or rather contrasts with it via repetition. This can mean both Reinsberg and the big wide world.


Text: Susanne Neuburger

 

 

For »Divided Confidence« in Reinsberg, Lower Austria Tinzl/Flunger suggested an intervention on the church steeple. It is common for people to look up to the church steeple and therefore the two artists proposed attaching a ladder on the north side of the steeple, where the clock is missing. Driven by a mechanism, the ladder would become its own timekeeper that refers to the profane function of the clock on the church steeple. Every fifteen minutes this clock moves 3 steps up, and on the hour it slides back to its starting point. It is synchronized with the church steeple clock. »One Step Forward, Two Steps Back« touches on issues relating on the global interplay of religion, politics and power, which are also linked to the regional history of the village of Reinsberg. Because a direct intervention on the church is at present not possible, the artists treated their kinetic object as separate from the church steeple, and placed it in a visible line with the steeple at the same height on a hill, and visible at a distance.

 

Text: Hubert Lobnig

 

 

»Divided Confidence« was curated and organised by Iris Andraschek und Hubert Lobnig.

The realization of this project was made possible by:

construction and setup: Karl und Renate Prüller, Daniel Datzreiter

programming: Robert Hörhann

Claudia und Leopold Faschingleitner

Elfriede und Johann Stadler

Andreas Schrems, asc-Antriebe

Josef Steiner

Public Art Lower Austria