KWIRKI, DER SENDBOTE (THE EMISSARY) is an interactive multimedia sculpture in the public space in front of the Floridsdorf District Administration Office at “Am Spitz”.
With a LED-display face mask, two branches for arms and a protective blanket, a five-anda- half-meter oak tree trunk (Lat. Quercus cerris) transforms into an anthropomorphous cyborg-actor named Kwirki. As a representative and emissary for all trees, so to speak, he tries to get into conversation with passers-by on the street, asking them for donations for ecological projects of the Jane Goodall Institute Austria dedicated to the conservation and reforestation of endangered forest areas in the global South. If donations start coming in on the spot via smartphone and QR code, it affects Kwirki’s “mood” and emotional life, as do incoming current weather data.
Kwirki is not a quiet admonisher, a sculptural reminder of eminent personalities or religious virtues in the public space. Rather, once a living tree, he was himself affected by the negative impact of human-made global warming and now, resurrected as a tree trunk-cyborg, seeks to ward off harm from all creatures on earth.
The artists want to use Kwirki to provide an emotional approach to the climate crisis and to sensitize people, as many and have collaborated as diverse as possible, to the subject.
Location
Am Spitz, 1210 Vienna
Gallery
Further Information
Matthias Böhler, b. 1981 in Aachen (DE), and Christian Orendt, b. 1980 in Sighișoara (RO), live in Berlin and have collaborated as Böhler & Orendt since 2008.
Curator: Barbara Horvath
Time Period
June 2, 2022 to May 31, 2023
Partners: Otto Mauer Fonds, Cultural Commission of the Floridsdorf District Council, Jane Goodall Institute Austria