Colour-Light (Farb-Licht)

On Franz Türtscher’s artistic intervention “Farb-Licht” on the stations designed by the architect Hans Riemelmoser at the new Kriegerhornbahn in Lech / Arlberg

The newly built cable-way onto the Kriegerhorn does not only set fresh standards in the areas of comfort of functionality of passenger transport, but also demonstrates the underlying architectural stance through its clear language of form, that seeks to create an immediacy in the experience of spacial and sensory quality, through well thought-out and consequent implementation of various means.

Riemelmoser designed the situation of the journey up and down the mountain to take place in simple glass boxes, thereby establishing an architecture of maximised transparency, in which the relationship of tension between the inside and the out, the building and its surroundings take the centre stage.

Based on this fundamental design element, the artist Franz Türtscher developed a facade construction for the two cable-cars that intensifies the intention of the architecture in its own unique way. Türtscher inserts fourteen or twelve right angled fields of colour into the frame-work steel construction of the glass encasing that follow the grid pattern of the facade and thereby add a rhythm to the experience though the alternating and suspenseful interplay of colour and transparency.

The coloured sheets transport intense colours, such as red, green, blue, pink, violet, in various different degrees of saturation, and depending on the perspective offer colourful views of the surrounding nature or vibrant incidences of light into the elevator space. It is particularly the rigidity of the arrangement of the sheets, as well as the frugality of the colour accents that allow for the opulence and the impact and perceptions of the various colours: depending on the height of the sun, and the intensity of the light, an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colour leaps into being.

The various fields of colour take on communicating functions between the inside and the outside space; much like a sundial, they map out the course of the sun and translate the weather conditions to become part of the inside of the unit. Conversely, the fields of colour also plunge the landscapes outside into different colours and lighting conditions, thereby opening up a panorama rich in contrast that plainly shows the artificiality of our perception of nature and filters our ingrained and romanticising way of looking at nature through the arrangement of these fields of colour.

While this piece is made to fit precisely to the its intended role, at the same time, it deals with fundamental questions concerning fine art, such as those about proportion and colour effect. Türtscher takes the risk to investigate these interactions while applying the piece to such a profane functional construction and expose his results to the surrounding condition that diverge dramatically from those that art is usually confronted with.

Franz Türtscher’s piece for the cable car up onto the Kriegerhorn takes its intense, iridescent effect entirely out of the accentuation of the medial character of architecture itself and can therefore entirely forgo the usual media applications such as screens or projection surfaces. In comparison this work can be described as being “minimally invasive”, as all it requires is a few square metres of wafer-thin, commercially available sheets, while still creating a subtle yet spectacular visual effect, by colouring the view and shifting the focus on what is present, can be seen and experienced. How much is “there” is lost on no one who travels up to the Kriegerhorn.

Christian Muhr (1963), Vienna, free-lace curator, critic, and producer.