Necessary silence

It is not easy to be quiet. It takes time for the body to relax and to get used to the sound of its own heart beat.

The desire of young mind and artists, pushed on by fear of not being missed or not to miss, seem to be something that in the first week students of the stone sculpture class needed to get rid of. Some came with expectation of doing something quickly since the build up for the classes lasted many months before hand. But, what is evident from the beginning is that one needs to use the technique of working in stone and use the space of the quarry to try and get into a new space,  new frame of mind and to also slow down. This class out of all during the Summer Academy is the one where students truly work with their whole body. To reach the body of course is one thing; it is completely a different thing to reach to a new frame of mind and way of looking at things.

One of the aims of the two collaborating artists and this year's professors in the Kiefer stone quarry, Doris Schälling and Jörg Enderle is to try and get rid of a too literal point of view and to open to the students many different ways in working in stone and not only this but interventions possible in the stony quarry itself. Of course the first thing one needs to realize is that the stones and the quarry are following a certain system that to the untrained eye is not evident. People working in the quarry for many years now, know the place of every stone, its structure, colour and possibly a purpose. They see inside a stone.

It is due to this approach and a newly established close group dynamics that many things were on show for us this weekend and not just traditional sculpture pieces. We were presented with a short performance piece organized underneath the steep stone wall, a collaborative work of a young architect, Yosuke Nakamoto, and dance student Eva Büchi. The cleaned theater stage asked for silence and many were annoyed (including myself as well) at the sound my camera made while taking photos. We were in a different space, far away from the Salzburg tourist feet. A short video, collaboration between the two young artists Nina Nowak and Ragnhild May was also presented to us. It came out of their relation to the space and the situation they both are faced with as young female artists. Apart from collaborative works students also showed to us their individual works. It was nice to see that each of them is really proud at what they are doing and are really becoming one with the space. For some not only is this quiet space a challenge but also few have never before held the tools necessary for work.

The city later on gave me another new window to its mystery. A long walk home from a barbecue party gave me a glimpse at the fortress from another view, showed me a channel were water is higher than the foot path, a blue castle and also a house in the middle of a field where an executioner lived. Well, some say yes and other says no. It was a walk in the night and sometimes it seems that only once all dies down new things could be experienced.