Austria, 2011–2018
Site-responsive floating installation
Photo by Leo Schatzl, Lunz am See, Austria, 2013
Floating Carpet is a nomadic sculptural surface composed of approximately 12,500 recycled wine corks and one kilometer of cord. Built through a slow process of collecting, sorting, tying, and assembling, the work carries the traces of prior use: the pigmentation left by wine, the circulation of materials, and the memory of everyday gestures embedded in discarded objects.
The project was developed through research into material provenance, production chains, textile histories, and temporary occupation. In collaboration with artist Julia Hartig, the process also explored Iranian nomadic carpet-making traditions, including their patterns, techniques, symbolic structures, and relation to movement.
The resulting object is not a fixed sculpture, but a mobile platform temporarily inhabiting lakes, harbours, and public sites. When placed on water, it produces a paradox: stable enough to gather on, unstable enough to remain in motion. Waves, animal traces, compass directions, and migratory routes enter the visual logic of the surface.
Floating Carpet marked an early articulation of concerns that continue to shape my later work: instability, displacement, collective inhabitation, public space, and the way objects can carry social memory across sites.
Production process archive:
https://process51.wordpress.com/
Selected presentations include Loose Harbour, OÖ Kulturquartier, Linz, Austria, 2018; Floating Village, KunstRaum Goethestrasse xtd, Linz, Austria, 2015; Kulturpark West Augsburg, Germany, 2013; LET’S SINK!, Wellenklaenge Festival / Kunst im Öffentlichen Raum Niederösterreich, Lunz am See, Austria, 2013; Neptun Wasserpreis nomination, Vienna, Austria, 2012; Best OFF, University of Art and Design Linz, Austria, 2012; solo exhibition Floating Carpet, Eleonore Schiff der Stadtwerkstatt, Linz, Austria, 2012; and Artist in Residence, Eleonore Schiff, STWST, Winterhafen Linz, Austria, 2011.
Shows
