At Schmiede Werkschau. Credit: Gabriele Krisch
Makery traveled to Hallein (Austria), where the annual Schmiede festival took place from September 16 to 25. The festival was conceived as a temporary makercamp and has been held for the past 15 years in the huge buildings of the city’s former salt factory. Second part of our report in pictures.
Schmiede (the forge), has for many years welcomed its Smiths on the formidable site of the saltworks on the island of Pernerinsel (white gold) in the heart of Hallein near Salzburg. Built between 1854 and 1862, the salt factory with its large wooden halls remained in operation until the 1980s. In the year 2020, despite the health situation, the organizers of Schmiede were determined that the not-to-be-missed gathering of Salzburg’s maker-artists – so celebrated for its studious yet festive atmosphere – could take place. This year, only about 100 Smiths could be welcomed in the site’s huge halls, compared to 200 in previous years (read our reportage on the 2019 edition). Masks were mandatory when not sitting, no collective kitchen, no parties, no DJs, no smoke machine, but creativity was still there, with workshops, conferences, performances.
Second part of our report. (First part is here).
Georg Schütz, Eva Perner and Rüdiger Wassibauer are preparing for the live stream of Riding! the project realized by Georg Schütz. Riding! is a continuous sports performance. A racing bike has been transformed into a racehorse, it is equipped with two cameras, one of them broadcasting live on its facebook page, the other one capturing some scenes in 4k and stabilized to ensure high quality images, which can be broadcast on demand.
Mascha Beuthel is working on her project “The armor of a researcher”. It is a material critical reflection on a researcher’s attempts to suppress emotions in order to be more “professional”. Parts of the armor can be disassembled to highlight the need to break with professionalism and allow more vulnerability in research.
The installation of Lisa Hovarth: “5.97 times 1024 kg is the mass of the world and – in my installation – takes the form of a three-dimensional poem. It is an installation involving an inflatable bubble that serves as a projection surface for videos dealing with an encounter between body and landscape, between organism and topography, between inside and outside, between micro and macro”. During the Schmiede Werkschau (the public exhibition of the projects at the end of the festival), Lisa’s installation was also used as a place for a small live intervention mixing video, voice and sound, thanks to an experimental collaboration of Raimonda Žiūkaitė, Vera Sebert and Lisa Horvath.
Andreas Pils and Alexandra Reichart pose in front of the lens of Kerstin Hruza. The photos will be part of their project “SARS-CoV-2- präventionskonforme, stationäre Oxytocinerzeugung” (“SARS-CoV-2- stationary oxytocin production in accordance with prevention”), which is exhibited on the photo wall Weallwall in the entrance hall of Schmiede.
“Emotional Research, Protection and Social Distance”, the project of Sarah Krainer: “This is an “emotional research project” in the context of Corona’s current situation. With my camera, I want to feel and visualize what this time of isolation and protection leaves us as traces and how they manifest themselves on our bodies”.
“Wasserzelt” is an immersive installation by the artists Reinhold Aschbacher (sound), Felicitas Grabner (installation), Magda Typiak (video), with help of Micha Elias Pichl-Kastner (video mapping). The artist group created a fly sheet for a pentagonal wooden tent-structure. Water – the theme of this immersion is tangible when entering the structure. One can lay down and experience water-variations of Hallein and surrounding rivers.
Melanie Mussegg and Georg Schütz present “Dreaming Rocks”. A rocking horse is petrified for a while and observed by two cameras, one of which moves on a motorized cursor in physical space. These visual pieces are combined in a short film.
The electronic organ hacked by Max Wolschlager. Performance on the song “on horses” by Gregor Landenhauf. Zanchin accompanied by Julian Bertschler on guitar.
Anna-Sophie von Agris, Jan Luis Gottwald, Labusi, Egon Sieghartsleitner, Eva-Maria Schitter present “Golden Horses”. “The process as a product: collecting waste and transforming it into the golden confidant of the gods”.
“Social Distancing Gulasch” de Lena K et Stephan Wiedner, sur la musique de Peter Hutter.
Schmiede20 in videos:
“Oscilloscope music” de Laserbeam Fenderson and Hansi4d
“Being Seen” is an audiovisual light sculpture by Bernhard Hollinger and Micha Elias Pichlkastner. “Light defines if, when and how we see, define and experience things. It shapes our environment and ourselves. The way we see the world and the way we are seen by the world”.
“Sound Blossoming” is a video and sound performance by Jan Luis Gottwald, Anna-Sophie von Agris and Simon Gendrot, which follows the shadow of a bird.
Read more about the Schmiede’s makercamp on its accounts Instagram and Facebook
Schmiede is part of the Feral Labs Network, co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe program.