Treffpunkt Niemandsland - Brennerpass 1997 - Einsiedlerbibliothek
In etwa 2 Stunden Entfernung vom Brennerpass liegt die Einsiedlerbibliothek.
For
more than two thousand years, Brenner has been a border town, a weather barrier,
and a place of commerce and exchange. Its history reaches back to the Stone Age.
The Romans crossed the Brenner Pass to expand their empire to the North, sixty
German emperors climbed the mountain ridge to be crowned in Rome. The yearning
for the light of the Mediterranean lured artists such as Goethe and Duerer up
to Brenner and down into Italy. The historic meeting between Hitler and Mussolini
is also attached to the name of this town. p.t.t.red (Stefan Micheel/Hans Winkler)
chose the Brenner for an artistic project that took place between August 1 and
September 15, 1997. To them Brenner seems to embody some strong contradictions.:
the silence of the seclusion and the roaring traffic, the fumes of car exhaust
and the fresh smell of the mountains, the bare functionality of the border town
architecture and the seemingly idyllic neighboring hamlets, the scattered population
of the area, and the dense streams of trafffic pointing north and south.p.t.t.red
invited ten artists from the neighboring countries Italy and Austria, as well
as from Germany and the United States to join them for a creative dispute on the
most important passage in the eastern alps. They investigated various aspects
of the border town and its surroundings through an artistic perspictive and created
a number of out door installations for the town. The common starting point for
the installation was a place called Basislager Nord on the Brenner pass. Two mail
train cars had been sent from Verona to the pass for that purpose. These cars
served as a meeting and information center and as an exhibition space for sculptures
and smaller pieces by the artists.The p.t.t.red project was triggered by the idea
to convert an abandoned cabin 7000 feet above sea level into a reclusive library.
p.t.t.red renovated the cabin and equipped it with a bed, a heater, a desk, and
shelves, as well as books recommended by twenty three writers and philosophers
such as Rudolf Bahro, Carl Amery, T.C. Boyle. Directions and the key to the cabin
have been available in the bar at the Brenner railroad station. A two hour walk
from the hectic activities of the border town , the cabin was accessible in summer
1997- 2001. artists: Peter Kaser,
Maurizio Cattelan, Walter Niedermayr, 4walls - Mike Ballou , Adam Simon , Ute
Weissleder, Bernhard Kathan, Dan Peterman...