Swiss artists Steiner and Lenzlinger create site-specific fantasias and interactive wonderlands that are an adaptation of nature through synthesis. The pair, who have collaborated since 1997 and are known as being among the most successful of contemporary Swiss artists, bring together made and found objects to create extravagant, magical installations that are full of fantasy, allegory and beauty.
I can’t even describe the profound thought and poetry that goes into one of these installations, so i’ll quote from their statement of why the Abbey Library of St. Gall in Switzerland was the perfect location for their ‘Seelenwarmer’ or ‘Soulwarmer’.
‘For a long time, the library was able to capture the emotions of stunned visitors. Some emotions remained stuck to the grilles in front of the books, or trickled away down the gaps in the parquet flooring, where they groaned and wished the whole day long whenever visitors glided over them wearing their felt slippers. More oohs and aahs that emanated from the stream of visitors hid in the ornate lettering in old-fashioned script used for the first letter of every page. Soon after, though [that is to say, 200 years ago], such books were all taken up, and there was space for the virginal oohs and aahs only in the printed matter. However, more and more visitors came, and the room became increasingly full. The unseen back rows of books swallowed emotions. Controllable, small emotions could be classified alphabetically according to the card index box…’ read the rest here.
Stiener and Lenzlinger use webs of falling gardens, caves for hermetic saints, taxidermied animals and insects, glistening ponds of motor oil and flowing streams of chemicals to create large-scale stories, which are told with a playful charm and a strong sense of irony. Their work deals with opposites – life and death, good and evil, hope and despair.
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