Competition for the University of Graz library


On 7 October 2016, Anna Artaker won BIG’s juried Kunst & Bau competition for the University of Graz library with her project entitled Perspectiva Practica.

The judges explained their decision as follows:
“Anna Artaker’s translation of a Renaissance illustration of perspective drawing adds another – surprisingly multi-layered – dimension to the underside of the new projecting structure of the university library. The perspective depicted in the image, which is a copperplate engraving that is massively enlarged and etched into the plaster, creates a strongly three-dimensional, dome-like effect. Artaker’s work is a reference to perspective and to science, while also calling to mind the foundation of Karl Franzens University in 1585.”

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The names of 157 of the most important Austrian authors, both deceased and contemporary, are affixed to the blind wall bordering the forecourt. The vertical orientation and arrangement of the relief-like lettering calls to mind the book spines on an (imaginary) bookshelf. In addition, Aballí proposes the depiction of a large, open book on the projecting underside of the roof structure.

LOEWIS TRAUM (Loewi’s Dream)


This proposal for the blind wall is based on Otto Loewi’s discovery of the first neurotransmitter. Loewi was a researcher at the University of Graz from 1909 to 1938. This work is a depiction of the 26 atoms of the acetylcholine molecule, without which the brain would not be able to learn, made from spiral-shaped texts that overlap and connect spatially. The result is an interfering cloud consisting of 26 texts by authors and scientists who either taught or studied at the University of Graz. Depending on how far away the observer is, the molecular text cloud shifts between two- and three-dimensionality.

Non Multa Seed Multum


David Jourdan’s proposal references such qualities as uniqueness and diversity. The idea of a book being both an individual copy and also part of an edition informed this work, in which Jourdan delves into questions of originality and translates them into handicraft. The work consists of several copies of a single prototype, namely a 3D scan of a peanut. He creates three greatly enlarged bronze casts of the peanut and positions them on the university campus. With identical casts of the same model, the question of which is the original is moot.

Sundial


LED screens affixed both to the vertical blind wall and to the underside of the projecting structure show video sequences that feature colourful landscapes, sky and animal motifs. These films condense the 24 hours of one day into a single hour. This adds a temporal aspect to the work and depicts the day/night cycle.

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Stefan Sagmeister’s proposal consists of two parts. Aluminium sheets covered in motifs are affixed to the blind wall and to the underside of the projecting structure; several round areas are left out and LED screens inserted into them. These screens show interactive films: the more people walk into the university library, the more flowers can be seen blooming on the screens. The number of flowers therefore corresponds with the number of people in the building at any given time. A second proposal comprises the installation of oversized artificial plants in the glazed foyer of the university library.

Ich habe Kopf- und Weltschmerz (I’m suffering from a headache and the universe)


Francoise Schein proposes a triptych of sorts for the library forecourt: Art. 26 of the Declaration of Human Rights is affixed to the underside of the projecting structure; on the stairs below, the network of all important European train routes is represented as a system of lines and dots made of steel buttons. The blind wall features the enonymous quote by Fernando Pessoa (“I’m suffering from a headache and the universe”) as well as a partly abstract, partly figurative work (based on a map of Graz) that is to be created in a participatory workshop at the University of Graz.