The sun as source of light, the bridge as a clock hand casts the shadow, the main street as a clock face, marked on it with colored dots the shadow positions at equinox, winter and summer solstice.


Christiane Krejs, excerpt, inauguration speech, 9/23/2012...

Renate Kordon used the local situation by combining the factors of time, light and shadow. She looked for a measurement of time that does not seek the smallest unit in a chronological succession but that draws on the natural phenomenon of the seasons, and articulates this. She confronts chronos with kairos, the solstice. Using light and shadow she captures precisely this moments and casts them onto the main road in Schottwien, that forms in conjunction with the motorway bridge the dial and the gnomon of an over-sized sundial. The exact sections for the relevant shadow zones were gleaned from years’ of observation by the artist on location; these are now marked with large colourful dots that bring the passage of life alive, that give the shadow zone new strength and lend vitality to the community. Renate Kordon has developed a stringent formal solution for a topographically conspicuous site. The simple markings allude to a highly complex cosmic phenomenon, and provide a visual sign that marks the uniqueness of this location as the ‘place under the bridge’. With the colourful accents on the road surfacing the artist reinterprets the shadow, in addition returning a hint of its former international status to Schottwien with the visual axes marked on the tower of the former town wall. >>>