Transegrity art installation

The Styrian Autumn is an international art festival that takes place annually in Graz. Under this year's leitmotif Where are we now? the installation TRANSEGRITY was created in front of the Palais Attems.

The title of the work is composed of the prefix "trans" and the term "tensegrity" (tension + integrity), coined by Richard Buckminster Fuller, which denotes a framework that consists exclusively of purely compressive and tensile elements and in which the compression elements do not touch.

In the installation, three long wooden sticks are joined together to form spatial elements reminiscent of oversized defence objects, so-called "Czech hedgehogs". These objects have been used since the Second World War to mark borders and territories. Arranged on Graz's Schloßbergplatz, the installation transforms public space into a place to linger and at the same time offers the possibility to perceive familiar urban space in a new way. Individual elements leave the order of the underlying structure and are fixed in the air by means of traction cables. At night the structure is transformed into a colourful illuminated field by coloured LED strips.