schnee stock parade
deutsche Fassung
snow stick parade
english version
 
Oberwart 1998
 
 
textes:
peter nesweda 
franz niegelhell
vitus h. weh
parade
 
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Franz Niegelhell

Snow sticks in town and at the beginning of summer seems strange at first sight. Andreas Lehner has fixed up a system of hanging and standing snow sticks which are usually used in winter as a visual form of orientation for snow covered country roads. The square is closed off for buses and private cars and its spatial dimensions are defined. The snow sticks are used here as a form of orientation as well. In comparison to snowed up areas, here, instead of on the main traffic roads in a landscape, the reveal their importance in the social system of the town itself and the desire to create changes.The installation covers the main square of the town which is mainly used as a bus stop. For a period of 16 days the bus stop will be moved. The main square is thereby open for other uses. One part of the main square is taken up by street cafes run by Oberwart restaurateurs. Previously there were no street cafes in the town centre. The appropriate applications were always rejected by the city council. 
The installation consisting of 3.500 snow sticks leads away from the main square, following a route the inhabitants hardly use, one kilometre through Oberwart. It leads across the so-called Rotundì where cattle auctions used to take place, on to the Badplatzì and then back to the square. This area and its surrounding buildings used to play an important economic role for Oberwart but these days they have become, despite their prominent position, a kind of blind spot for the inhabitants. It is architecturally interesting and the Rotundì, a very attractive property, forms a  further town centre. (Andreas Lehner). 
If one knows the background information the installation is no longer strange, but rather points out the social and historical connections in a revealing manner. It is, so to speak, a visual guiding system for the embeddedness of these connections and their social forms (in daily life) within a continuum of time and space and how they fit into the specific lived reality of this community. The public space can be experienced as a social construction through this intervention. A few of the historic milestones of this construction are addressed, e. g. the changes in the relevance of the village and communication centre, the main square over the years. The same applies to the changes in economic transactions which are obviously noticeable in the "Rotunde"loss of relevance. 
This area would be ideal for many communal activities because of its position and suitable buildings. 
Every form of historical thinking 
reveals the roots of the present by establishing the causes for the conditions which exist in a space-time continuum. Lehner does this with the help of the Oberwart population and through his work processes, but he also goes one step further. "A temporary vacuum is created that can be filled with life, but it can also be considered as an experiment in redefining the square and which could possible fail if the newly created space is not acceptet" (Lehner) One can only hope the former will be the case.