Mario Terzic

1945 (Feldkirch/Styria), lives and works in Vienna

From 1964 until 1968 he studied Industrial Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In the early 1970s he started to plan and organise exhibitions, garden projects, and projects for public spaces. From 1982 to 1983 he was a visiting professor at the Offenbach Academy of Art and Design in Germany. In 1991 he returned to the University of Applied Arts in Vienna as a professor, and became head of the master class for graphic arts. 

Between 1992 and 1999 he dedicated himself to the Rasumofsky Garden, a natural area of 3,000 m2 which served as an ideal study area for students of graphic arts at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In this garden students were able to unleash their creative potential and hone their skills. They were presented with problems which they had to solve, and their ability to develop innovative solutions was encouraged. 

Between 1998 and 2003 Terzic directed the Trinidad project. In collaboration with Norbert Bacher and Karl Födermair, he developed conceptual landscape works. During the course of this project he became interested in historical gardens. Ideas were then generated to revive these gardens, and to make them more attractive and more accessible to visitors. His realisation that artistic intervention is needed to revive landscape gardens dates from this time.

In the year 2000 the Department of Landscape Design was founded at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Terzic has been the head of this department since its opening. Among Mario Terzic’s works and garden projects of the last few years are GRAZ REININGHAUS (2008), PRIMAVESI (2007) in Vienna, LUST AU/Linz on the Danube – Cultural Capital of Europe 2009 (2006/2007), and ZOTTER GARTEN (2005) in Riegersburg, Styria. Exhibitions in Vienna included for example AVANTGARDENERS (2008), EMERGENCE – Das Entstehen neuer Landschaften (the creation of new landscapes) (2007), and GARTENKUNST (garden art) (2006).