Manfred Erjautz

Venue: Façade of Akademisches Gymnasium Graz, Tummelplatz

Three disused street lamps find themselves combined into a sculpture and mounted on the wall of a house. In an unaccustomed position on the façade of the Akademisches Gymnasium in Tummelplatz, they have the appearance of a “plant of urban origin” (Manfred Erjautz). The lamps are connected to the local light grid. In the evening they illuminate the façade and path, during the daytime their shadow creates a moving play of light on the high wall of the school.

The materials are taken from the city of Graz. A classical whip lamp, a straight, conical pole with an oval lamp in the geometrical style of the eighties, and a traditional Stadtpark lamp, a cast made of its lavishly decorated pole specially for this purpose. The new ensemble transcends the monotonous, but necessary standard dimensions of street lights. Positioned on the façade of a school, it particularly embodies living diversity in public space.

The Akademisches Gymnasium is one of the oldest schools in the German-speaking world. It was founded in 1573 as a Jesuit college in the course of the Counter-Reformation and served as a precursor of Graz University, that was founded in 1585. The current building in Tummelplatz was built in 1890 for the “1st Imperial-Royal State Grammar School Graz”. Today, the Akademisches Gymnasium bears its name as a honorary title.

Manfred Erjautz, born in Graz in 1966, lives in Vienna.