Wolfgang Becksteiner

The Corona monument Distanced Closeness is positioned in the Castle Gardens with a direct line of sight to the Graz Castle, the seat of the Styrian state government, where important decisions related to the Covid-19 pandemic were reached. At the junction of three gravel paths, the monument takes up the visual axis to the Castle. Two parallel concrete walls, 2.2 meters high and 3.4 meters long, create a spatially confined path at a fork for visitors to stride through. This passageway enables the sculpture to be experienced directly.

By means of the roughened, black-lacquered inner surfaces of the walls, Wolfgang Becksteiner points to the rough, hard times of the crisis. The narrowness and darkness inside the object make the oppression caused by the pandemic physically comprehensible. Distanced from their fellow human beings in the immediate vicinity, the visitors find themselves once more in isolation and loneliness. At the same time, the two open sides provide a prospect and a way out, an always possible view to the rear and to the front. They become an immanent reminder of the freedom and opportunity for closeness we are accustomed to, as well as of the hope of soon being able to find back to these important components of life.

While the one-meter interval between the two high walls, a distance that became omnipresent in the Corona pandemic, recalls the imperative for distance and the feelings associated with it, this interspace is precisely what makes movement possible — proceeding onward amidst the hardship is understood as a symbol of coping. The strict prevention measures come up against important human needs such as interpersonal relationships and physical contact. We find ourselves again in a conflict. Questions about the necessities of life (and survival) of the individual, as well as those of a social, open society, are raised.

Location:

Burggarten, Hofgasse 15, 8010 Graz
47°04'22.5"N 15°26'38.4"E