Tag Archives: art in public spaces

Glyptophilia: the catalogue. Get it on Apple Books!

glyptophilia_applebooks

Glyptophilia, my sculpture in public space, has got a beautiful companion! It’s a multi-media catalogue, so you can listen to an essay, flip through pics, enjoy a flight past the vineyards, and read the English and (partly) German texts by the fireplace. iPhone or iPad.

How to get it: At the Apple book store, just type “Glyptophilia” and fetch the full version within seconds.

If you prefer a link: Just tap on the name of the country where you’ve registered your Apple device: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela.

Please give it a try. And if you like it: Rate it five stars! Thank you!

Glyptophilia – an installation in public space

“Glyptophilia” is the title of my latest installation in public space, amidst square kilometers of grands crus vineyards, at 48.48881 N / 15.66187 E. It’s a monument to knowledge and its preservation over millennia, but it’s also a place for contemplation in case you’re in the mood for reflection.

Despite its camo outfit – from far, the piece resembles a hut – the exposition of a series of baked clay tablets carrying elements of language – which become visible through horizontal slits as soon as you get close – gives a hint what might be going on here.

A thousand clay tablets, bound into weighty books, destined for eternity. Wait for new moon to see the librarian!

Note: There is a series of live events and zoom events planned to take place at the Glyptophilia site over the coming months and years. For current schedules and detailed programmes please come back to this page frequently.

The Innocent: a series of sculptures in public space

It’s a piece of architecture. It’s a sculpture. It’s a place where people gather, and talk and party, and even wait for the next bus. It’s highly sophisticated infrastructure for a multimodal transportation system. It’s “The Innocent”.

I’ve created this sculpture series for the State of Carinthia (design competition, 1st prize). First installations – in villages, towns and cities, and, importantly, on the verges of common country roads – might arrive as early as 2019, and there’s a good chance that a special edition in honour of Peter Handke will make it into the wild!

Drive-by muralism: The viewer becomes the producer

When FDR, the biennial art project of the State of Upper Austria, commissioned me to do a series of six murals themed “Uninvited Guests” along Marchtrenk, I carefully shopped for benevolent walls. So I got this grainy-textured, worn-out façade at a crossroads in the very center of the town, which would become shelter for a work of particularly ephemeral character. Lit by the cars’ headlights by night, the scene depicted in the mural became vivid: For a fleeting moment, drivers could see a group of people, burdened with their personal effects, hiking across the village. Only a split second later, and they had already disappeared into the dark again. Technique: tape.

Decorative-aesthetic functions of the sculpture in urban space


In summertime, Austrians prefer the sidewalk café to have lunch or meet for a coffee. One of these cosy restaurants in the heart of Vienna is Salon Wichtig, where the owner decided to top the al fresco experience with commissions of art in public spaces.

So let me share the cooking instructions with you: The shiny yellow alu sheets are Signicolor by Novelis. The bright-coloured heavy-duty duct tape is Pattex by Henkel. And the words and the composition are genuine Lena Lapschina­­­­.

Art in the kindergarten


It took me several white nights to draw this little soulmate. A commission by Rakvere Rohuaia Kindergarten and the Kilomeeter Skulptuuri art-in-public-spaces programme, the mural is about eighteen meters in width and seven meters in height.

“Waymarks & Dialogues” at Mardin Bienali

“İşaretler ve Diyaloglar” (“Waymarks & Dialogues”) is a situation-specific work for the 3rd Biennial in Mardin. Here, on the verge of Turkey, in the northernmost part of Mesopotamia, I’ve met with people and listened to conversations in order to record the most contemporary words in the various languages of Mardin. These words I’ve mounted in the medieval part of the city, in the narrow 1. Cadde (1st Lane), starting at the massive walls of Mor Efrem Manastırı. Intertwined with a series of lightboxes, which hide in the tiny workshops along 1. Cadde, a mythological footpath is formed. Visitors can discover both their history – and their destination.