Brigitte Kowanz: R – ein Rechts-Knicken, L – ein Links-Knicken
Factsheet
Format: Outdoor installation
Location: 1010 Vienna, Rathausstraße 1: BUWOG Customer and Administrative Centre
Creation: 1997/2001/2020
Artist: Brigitte Kowanz (* 1957, Vienna – ✝︎ 2022, Vienna), www.kowanz.com
Info/Scope: With the poetic force of light and language, Brigitte Kowanz invites us to decipher her work, which marks the main entrance to BUWOG’s new headquarters as a seven-metre-high stele of light comprised of steel, glass and neon tubes.
Dimensions: 700 x 110 x 32 cm (H x W x D)
Brigitte Kowanz: R – ein Rechts-Knicken, L – ein Links-Knicken / R – A Bend to the Right – L – A Bend to the Left
Brigitte Kowanz can be found in numerous national and international museums with her expansive sculptures, light installations and photographs. Her works have been shown at the biennials in São Paulo, Sydney and Cairo, she represented Austria at the Venice Biennale in 2017, and she is considered one of Austria’s most important artists. At first glance, her internationally acclaimed work appears secretive and distant, awaiting deciphering to reveal its poetic force of light and language: “The coded message of this ribbon of writing brings forth its form,” she inscribes in the work (in German). Corresponding with the architecture, the installations analyse both the space and our human actions in the architectural shell.
The sculpture R – Ein Rechts-Knicken, L – ein Links-Knicken was commissioned by BUWOG in 2001 as the first “Bau und Kunst” project on the occasion of the redesigning of the former Customer and Administrative Centre (1130 Vienna). In 2020, Brigitte Kowanz’s work was moved to the new BUWOG Customer and Administrative Centre to mark the main entrance at Rathausstraße 1, 1010 Vienna as an artistic statement.
Other works by Brigitte Kowanz in BUWOG’s art collection: Leuchten / Lights, 1997, and Morsealphabet / Morse Code, 1999.
