Heritage Talk on Thursday
On 17 October 2019 Peter Noever was guest at the BDA, Austrian’s Federal Monuments Authority in the Hofburg in Vienna.
The interview was held by Andreas Lehne, the well known expert on monument research at the BDA.
Focusing on topics such as urban planning, especially public space in Vienna, art and architecture. Another topic of this conversation in the denseley filled ancestral hall was “The Pit”, a walk-in work of art created by Peter Noever, which was placed under monument protection only a few weeks ago and now is the youngest monument in Austrian’s county of Burgenland.
“Art is Experiment” is a guiding principle of Peter Noever. He unmistakingly pointed out that the experiment is the open outcome.
He regrets that everything is currently in “firm hands”, everything has been conceptualized, planned, tested and standardized down to the smallest detail. Seen like this there is little space left for new, radical and necessary approaches in art.
“Selection 66” together with Hans Hollein was his first exhibition in the old traditional Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, which he converted to “MAK” in 1986. It took place 20 years before Noever became the director at this Ringstraßen-building. It was important to him in this exhibition, in addition to furniture of modern architecture such as Marcel Breuer or Le Corbusier to show a brand new work by Walter Pichler. This is how the legendary aluminium chair “Galaxy” was developed. Noever is also a critic of many urban development measures in this city, such as the Museumsquartier (MQ) in the former court stables of the emperor or the new design of the Stephansplatz with the house designed by Hans Hollein, but also the violent re-design of the “Wien Museum” on Karlsplatz. A building designed by Oswald Haerdtl from 1954–1959.
Questions like “Which aspects are particularly important to him when presenting works of art?” or “Is art and culture protection an obstacle to artistic freedom?”, he says “No.”, but he answered the question “Can you tear down an object by the architect Fischer von Erlach, in this case the New Museumsquarter in the court stables?” with a clear “Yes.”
↑ Denkmalgespräch am Donnerstag mit Peter Noever und Andreas Lehne