THE GLÖGGLWAGGON heralds the start of the Capital of Culture year and is a railway carriage equipped with bells and jingles, the ringing of which is powered by the wind. The faster the journey, the more intense the ‘jingling’ as it crosses the Salzkammergut from Attnang-Puchheim to Stainach-Irdning with a Doppler effect. When it stops, it falls silent.
If it passes churches within earshot along the route, they respond to the mobile ‘heathen noise’ by ringing from their towers. The route, which largely runs along the Traun and its lakes, is also referenced in the construction of the machine:
Alluding to the oars of rafting and salt shipping, ‘air paddles’, which are tilted by the wind, give impulses to the clappers in the 49 bells of the Perner bell foundry’s carillon and the bell ringers’ bells of the Ebensee women’s chapel. Majestically rare, a man-sized iron bell sends its deep tone into the landscape.
As wild and archaic as THE GLÖGGLWAGGON may seem, it is a delicate object. As unbearably loud as the bells are up close, it is all about listening to the vast silence all around, to the landscape into which the passing wagon penetrates with its tinkling, filling it with sound and triggering a surge of ringing in the church bells.
A loud breeze – when it has passed, the familiar sounds and the everyday din emerge again.
The development and production of the “Glögglmaschine” takes place in the apprentice workshop of the ÖBB Infrastructure Department for Training and Further Education in Linz, and the wagon is put on track with the support of RailCargo – also as an apprentice project.
Contributors
Georg Nussbaumer (artist/composer)
Apprentices from the ÖBB training workshop in Linz (building construction)
Norbert Schweizer (project support, organisation)
ARGE Hallschallzeit (project responsibility)
ÖBB Infra, ÖBB Rail Cargo, Evangelical Church A. B. Upper Austria, Evangelical Church A. B. Styria, Kirchliche Projekte + Initiativen für Salzkammergut 2024, Frauen*forum Salzkammergut, Glockengießerei Perner (project partners)
Christian Haselmayr (Head of Programme Music, Youth, Community Building)
