Mariam Gómez Manzaneque. Art & part, design and.. get to work!
Rides and waves
An art project with the public transportation company Wiener Linien
Wiener Linien connects the Viennese like no other company. Every day,
we take a tram, bus or train and rush home, to work, to meet friends,
or to the restaurant at the other end of the city. The ones who don’t
use public transport themselves, will still get in touch with Wiener
Linien on the daily street traffic or watch a tram passing by the
window. More sustainable and affordable than owning a car, more
efficient and cheaper than the infrastructure in many other European
cities, a better choice in winter than a bicycle and one doesn’t even
need to look for a parking space – in short, an art project with the
Wiener Linien was a desirable goal for us.
So we worked on our project idea, made it into a concept for an art
project and presented it to Wiener Linien at the end of last year.
Luckily, our design proposals were successful, and we sat down
together two more times to figure out the visualization and the
approach. Over the Christmas holidays 2018, we started to work on our
project and to let our idea become reality.
The project was to artistically design the visual shields for the
construction site at the Viennese transit station Meildinger
Hauptstraße. In order to hide the ongoing renovations of escalators and
elevators, we put the construction site into the mask and gave it a
temporary cover, to not disturb the visual appearance of the station
through dusty working sites. The outcome was a beautiful camouflage in
the visual style of the Wiener Linien.
In order to artistically capture the busy transit station Meidlinger
Hauptstraße and to remain true to the style of the Wiener Linien, we
chose a comprehensive wave pattern, which reflects the dynamics and flow
of the transport company as well as the transport hub of the city of
Vienna. Color-coded to Austria as well as to the company colors of the
Wiener Linien, the visual shields create a bright and friendly
atmosphere.
Each plate is handpainted. In order to keep the installation and use
of the plates as easy as possible, they were painted on both sides and
do not follow a fixed sequence. As a result, they are constantly
rearranged and create a new piece of art and an unprecedented picture
landscape.
In total, we painted about 200 panels of different sizes and
different materials of varying haptics, forming a total area of 347.15
m². Even though it was a new and therefore challenging experience for
us, we grew with the process, due to the outstanding cooperation of all
involved helpers and supporters.
A huge thank you goes to the gallery “Die Schöne”, whose premises and
lighting conditions offered us an ideal working frame. In addition, we
benefited from the fireplace in the loft, without which we would have
had to surrender to the freezing temperatures.
Thank you for the fun and helpful cooperation! Stay tuned. More is coming soon…
Many thanks also to Mariam Gomez for her help with the visualization as well as to all the other helpers, especially Feodora Leslie Keferstein, who realized the project. A very big thank you to Valerie Huber, without whom the project would not have come about.
Many thanks also to Mariam Gomez for her help with the visualization as well as to all the other helpers, especially Feodora Leslie Keferstein, who realized the project. A very big thank you to Valerie Huber, without whom the project would not have come about.
Our
partners did a great Job! Thank you for Logistics & Transport
cooperation with Synthesa, OTIS & H & W.
Text by Verena Backes
