This project was developed in context of the Schönes Wohnen (beautiful Living) project. The Institute for Art in Public Space Styria invited six Austrian artists and art collectives (Ines Doujak, Sonja Gangl, Oliver Hangl, zweintopf, Marko Lulić and Hieslmair/Zinganel) to create artworks dealing with the living situations in different residential areas in Graz. The artists worked with the residents on the boarder of public and private spaces.
Centers of living with and next to each other in the Triester Strasse are, among other things, the tobacco shops. Four of them are located in the vicinity of several residential complexes, whose residents see these small businesses not only as local suppliers and service providers. They form a social network node and also constitute communities. Michael Zinganel and Michael Hieslmair manifest the results of the route network analysis around the respective tobacco shops in a “route network installation” near one of the tobacco shops: The sculpture consists of labyrinthine pipelines and signs, like abstract route maps, that trace the paths of the regular customers and proprietors. The pictograms on the provided signs show the routes taken by the residents of the district by imitating references to cultural monuments. The three other tobacco shops were signposted with the abstracted route network in relation to the respective tobacco shop. In a subtle way, invisible traces are visualized by the artists in a three-dimensional social map and centers of meaning are thus represented graphically.
Location: Vinzenz-Muchitsch-Straße 60/on the corner of Hammer-Purgstall-Gasse, 8020 Graz
