“Lines of light and fragments of color will overwrite the Traun, its surroundings and an interior of the old paper mill in such a way that they can be completely rediscovered: transformed into works of light art or, more precisely, into chromotopes that combine to form Chromotopia,” says Victoria Coeln, who coined this term for her site-specific light spaces. She has been creating chromotopes at outstanding locations all over the world since 1994. Recently, for example, she turned the Austrian Parliament into a highly visible work of light art. “My chromotopes are created wherever questions of coexistence are at stake and where a sediment of emotions and memories needs to be discovered and transformed,” says the artist. “I create spaces of insight that renegotiate and reformat existing narratives – spaces of light open to all that can inspire new encounters and exchanges.”
In the site-specific outdoor work, the artist devotes herself to the Laakirchen Traun, which was and is of great importance for the history and present of the city as a location for paper production. Victoria Coeln: “The triad of water, paper and light changed the world. To this day, it connects people of different origins, countries and cultures. Especially against the backdrop of the European idea, the papermaking museum in the old paper mill in Laakirchen is a place that deserves attention.”
Friederike Reiter: “Kunstfabrik 4.0 creates the conditions needed to create art on site and for the site.
The focus is also on the changing history, social effects of a changing world of work and perhaps a visionary view of the future of art that makes transformation processes visible and tangible.In Chromotopia, Victoria Coeln uses light to draw never-before-seen shapes in landscapes and spaces.She invites us to enter spaces of perception in which light, like music or silence, speaks to us in a universal language.”
The light intervention on the Traum / Museum Island can be seen daily from sunset until 22:00. As a photographic exhibit, it will be part of the exhibition in the papermaking museum.The special exhibition provides an insight into the artist’s exploration of light as a medium and material through various groups of works; the walk-in chromotopia in the large gallery space of the papermaking museum in the old paper mill invites visitors to become part of the light art themselves and thus a “participating subject” of the exhibition.
Chromotopia is curated by Friederike Reiter and Heike Sütter.
Opening program:
18.00 pm
Admission
In the gallery of the papermaking museum
Greetings and opening of the exhibition
Alfred Hannes Heinzel
Owner of the papermaking museum
Fritz Feichtinger
Mayor of the town of Laakirchen
Elisabeth Schweeger
Artistic Managing Director
of the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl – Salzkammergut 2024
7.00 pm
Guided tour and discussion
Curator Heike Sütter with media artist Victoria Coeln
8:30 pm
In the outdoor area of the papermaking museum (in case of bad weather in the ALFA)
Opening of the light art work Chromotop Laakirchner Traun
Chromatic Polylog
Victoria Coeln, visual art
Matthias Leboucher, electronics
Helēna Sorokina, voice
More about the project at salzkammergut-2024.at
