Andreas Slominski | Turnips

Art Project Krauthügel
May 5 – September 30, 2016
Krauhügel, Salzburg

A road, a cycle lane, a harvesting machine and turnips: The basic building blocks of Andreas Slominski’s installation, especially conceived for the Krauthügel Art Project, are as banal as they are unusual. The constellation and siting of the object are also disconcerting – a signature trademark of the artist, who, in the course of his “aesthetic field research”, alienates random quotidian objects from their everyday context, in order to tease new meaning from them.

Slominski’s road and his cycle lane are three-dimensional concepts. Yet neither bicycle nor humans actually move, but rather the art and thoughts of the artist are transported into the mind of the viewer. Slominski “rolls” up both thoroughfares to fashion a large cylinder or oval – pure forms, which have been divested of their original function. As the epitome of a ubiquitous public utility, the road is transformed into a sculpture, flanked by a symbolic field of turnips. With the turnip, Slominski is integrating the history of the city of Salzburg into his work, specifically Prince Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach, whose coat of arms bore a white turnip. He is famous, among other things, for having reinforced Hohensalzburg Castle, which dominates the Krauthügel panorama, and thus forms part of the installation.

Credits: Andreas Slominski, Rüben, Photo: Manfred Siebinger