17:48

Schlegel/Teckert

Exhibition in the urban space and at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, 1995

The project by Schlegel/Teckert addressed the relations and connections between cityspace and institutional space by appropiating the lighting system of Vienna. The lighting of the institute of contemporary arts at the Academy of Fine Arts was synchronized with the daily rhythm of the city`s public lighting network for two weeks by installing used street-lamps. The Viennese lighting system forms a homogenuous network, that covers each streetspace in the whole city like an artificial roof and is switched on and off automatically at the same time all over the city by a single light sensor. At the day of the opening, the exact time of switching on the lighting system was set at 17:48 (5.48pm) as our decision contrary to the „natural“ mode of the sensor. This single event was announced publicly in a daily newspaper as well as on radio anonymously.

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication 17:48.

The event of the „opening of the exhibition“ could be followed in the whole city as well as in the institute synchronously. The piece tried to create a moment of synchronicity between everyday-perception in public space and an institutional event, where the location of the piece between outside and inside cannot be defined anymore.