Art and culture at 2,032 m
The Silvretta-Bielerhöhe is home to numerous works of art
Der Wächter
Prof. Herbert Albrecht
The sculpture by Vorarlberg sculptor Prof. Herbert Albrecht is the first new addition to the Bielerhöhe - between Tyrol and Vorarlberg. It is located on the north-eastern shore of the reservoir and has been reverently watching over the impressive mountains of the Silvretta since the end of August 2018.
Albrecht, who studied in Vienna from 1949 to 1955, including the last four years under the renowned sculptor Fritz Wotruba, has spent his life exploring Greek classical sculpture and the image of man expressed in stone sculpture. In a way, the guardian is also a contemporary witness to Albrecht's lifelong exploration of man and his vocation.
About Prof. Herbert Albrecht
Prof. Herbert Albrecht (†2021) was one of the most important stone sculptors in the Vorarlberg region. Born in Au in the Bregenzerwald in 1927, he knew early on which professional direction he would take. In the 1940s, his path initially led him to the School of Arts and Crafts in Innsbruck, where he attended his first sculpture class. Driven by his fascination with sculptures and sculptures, he finally began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Herbert Böckl and Fritz Wotruba.
Back in Vorarlberg, Albrecht increasingly focused on the human figure in a historical context: antiquity and the image of man developed in this epoch are an important dialog partner and source of inspiration for him. In the mid-1950s, Albrecht increasingly left his familiar terrain and moved further in the direction of stylization and abstraction. His major works include the "Homage to Brigantium" in Bregenz harbor, the bronze head in front of the Juridicum in Vienna and the guard on the Silvretta-Bielerhöhe.
Erdenlicht
Miriam Prantl
The art object Erdenlicht was created by the artist Miriam Prantl and is located directly on the illwerke vkw shaft in front of the Silvretta-Haus*** on the Silvretta-Bielerhöhe.
The platform is surrounded by sculptural segments that act as mirrors, reflecting the sky, the water and the mountains.
In the middle of the platform is a kind of telescope, which does not look into the distance but into the depths. A mysterious, impressive discovery when looking through the tube is a pulsating space of light. It seems as if you can look into the interior of the earth. Played with cool light sequences that describe the water and the infinite depths, through to warm, fiery elements that are supposed to represent magma.
About Miriam Prantl
Light, space and color - these three are essential to the work of Vorarlberg artist and light virtuoso Miriam Prantl. Born in Bregenz in 1965, Prantl moved the center of her life and work to Dornbirn. Light installations and architectural interventions are her specialty, but sculptures, wall reliefs and paintings are also part of her artistic oeuvre.
Before dedicating herself to the visual arts in the 1980s, Prantl trained in classical dance. Sensing the spatial with the help of her own body is an essential aspect that the artist has transferred into her installations and works to this day, making it possible for the viewer to experience it in a new way.
Just as, for example, the vibrations of individual notes of an instrument combine to form a harmonious sound and the body begins to move to the sound of the music, Prantl also seeks to create a harmony of the whole in her artworks and installations with the help of the vibrations of colors and lights, whereby the viewer's experience of the art always comes to the fore.
Die Signatur
Gottfried Bechtold
14 meters long, shiny metallic and written in large, curved letters, it draws attention to itself on the huge dam wall to Lake Silvretta - the signature of Vorarlberg artist Gottfried Bechtold. Originally a sculptor, Bechtold, who has remained true to his birthplace and place of work Bregenz to this day, has been increasingly exploring the international and experimental currents of Land, Minimal and Concept Art since the 1960s.
He is particularly fascinated by the tension between nature and civilization, which is effectively expressed in his signature on the man-made dam wall.
Allah ist groß
Gottfried Bechtold
In this abstract, sculptural work of art by Gottfried Bechtold, two 20-tonne stones from the Atlas Mountains piled on top of each other grow together to form a homage-like monument on the gneiss of the Silvretta massif. The work, created in 2002, was originally entitled "Sculpture in the mountains".
It is only in the subtitle that the exclamation "Allah is great", common in the Arabic-speaking world, is revealed. Traditionally used as an expression of thanks and in moments of happiness, it refers to the fact that God is always greater than can be imagined. Bechtold thus creates a meaningful connection to the material and its original origin.
About Gottfried Bechtold
Born in Bregenz in 1947, the artist Gottfried Bechtold was introduced to the fine arts in his early childhood by his father, who worked as a stonemason, and his great-uncle and sculptor Albert Bechtold.
Today, living and working in Bregenz and Hörbranz, Bechtold is increasingly concerned with expanding the concept of art, especially in the field of sculpture. He was initially fascinated by the European and American art of the 1960s and 1970s, which then led him to explore the art movements and works of Land Art, Minimal and Conceptual Art.
Whether action art, sculpture, object, film or text work - Bechtold has remained true to the essence of Land and Conceptual Art and has since then focused his artworks stringently on the viewer. His mostly monumental works always seek to relate to reality, nature, physical rules and everyday processes or even to people themselves.
Kunstraum2032silvretta
Werner Zotter
The Kunstraum2032silvretta offers itself as a "stage" for art productions of various kinds, at an altitude of 2,032 m above sea level. Thanks to a flexible light and sound installation, the space can be used in a multifunctional way.
During "art breaks", a four-hour weather forecast for the Silvretta region is displayed in the tunnel for visitors and mountaineers. The weather forecast is presented audiovisually using light and sound effects. In winter, avalanche warning levels 1 to 5 are also visualized.
About Werner Zotter
Light in all its many facets is the profession of lighting designer Werner Zotter. The former managing director of LightLife Gesellschaft für audiovisuelle Erlebnisse mbH, currently a freelance light artist, has specialized in special media solutions in the fields of art and architecture.
His core competence is the staging and transformation of artificial light into light art using impressive control technology. However, his portfolio also includes audio and video installations.
Installation am Bielbach
Roman Signer
Installation am Bielbach is a work of art created by Roman Signer in collaboration with the Kunsthaus Bregenz and illwerke vkw on the Bielerhöhe in the Montafon at an altitude of over 2000 meters. A stream that flows under a bridge into the Silvretta reservoir is dammed and led back into the lake as an arched fountain across the path.
The stream forms an arch of water and a bridge at the same time. The absurd manipulation - a jet of water becomes an architectural element and a liquid element becomes a static structure and thus a sculpture - is characteristic of Signer's work.
About Roman Signer
Sculpture and drawing, action and conceptual art and, last but not least, film are the art genres between which the Swiss artist Roman Signer has moved fluidly throughout his life.
Born in Appenzell in 1938, Signer initially completed an apprenticeship as a structural draughtsman. From 1966, Signer began his artistic training at the local arts and crafts schools in Zurich and from 1969 to 1971 in Lucerne. In 1971 and 1972, he spent time abroad at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where the Swiss artist also met his future wife Aleksandra Rogowiec, who now also works as a freelance artist in St. Gallen.
The central starting point in Signer's work is the concept of sculpture from the 1960s, as first put up for discussion by Harald Szeemann in his 1968 exhibition "When Attitudes Become Form".
Signer is fascinated by the new definition of sculpture and incorporates factors such as the temporal into his creative process. These include parameters such as change, acceleration, duration and transience. Some of his most spectacular actions include the staged dynamite explosions, which illustrate blasting as an instantaneous transformation as a new aspect of the artistic act.
In his sculptural works, water, sand and wind come to the fore instead of traditional working materials, as well as many simple everyday objects such as barrels, bicycles and kayaks, which are deliberately subjected to complex transformation processes. Characteristic of Signer's work here is the sheer simplicity of the objects, which, in the interplay of precise planning and unpredictable chance, give rise to a new kind of installation - aesthetic and poetic at the same time.
Kraftwerksführungen
Wasserkraft hautnah erleben
Die zahlreichen Stauseen im Montafon stehen in engem Zusammenhang mit der Energiegewinnung aus Wasserkraft. Blicke hinter die Kulissen und erfahre mehr über die Stromerzeugung.
Schattenbild "Wanderer"
Liddy Scheffknecht
For many years, the Silvretta-Bielerhöhe was the setting for the SilvrettAtelier. As part of the art project launched by illwerke vkw, numerous artists have been inspired by nature and the imposing mountain world during their stays and have explored it creatively.
Liddy Scheffknecht is one of the renowned artists whose work "Stein am Boden mit Schattenbild" can be admired above the Bielerhöhe.
About Liddy Scheffknecht
Born in Dornbirn in 1980, the artist Liddy Scheffknecht now lives and works in Vienna. She is a graduate of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts Paris. Since 2006, her work has been regularly represented in national and international group exhibitions, such as the Biennale of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean 2009, the Moscow Biennale for Young Art 2010 and the Sinop Biennale 2012.
Scheffknecht's work is characterized by a broad spectrum of media, which nonetheless forms a coherent, continuous programme. In photographic sequences, installations, sculptures, drawings, projections and media hybrids, she examines the relationship between temporality, perception and space. She uses, for example, the rotation of the earth and immaterial media such as the play of light and shadow as well as classic sculptural materials and digital media.